


Fantastic Writers and How To Deal With Them

by book_lover_dragon



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bad Spelling & Grammar, Crack Fic, F/M, I'm Bad At Tagging, I'm Bad At Titles, Slow Burn, Sorry Not Sorry, writers au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-15
Updated: 2019-04-13
Packaged: 2019-08-02 16:22:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 26,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16308608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/book_lover_dragon/pseuds/book_lover_dragon
Summary: From the OTP prompt, "Imagine A and B being famous authors who write books that are in genres that are the opposite of the other’s books. A and B’s fans claim the two writers are rivals even though they never met.One day, B’s editor had met A’s editor, and the two editors are dating. Push comes to shove, and the anti-social B was dragged to A’s meet-and-greet.What happens next is up to you."





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I might have been obsessed with the idea of a modern au for a while. I actually have another thing beside this but I'm currently wrapped up with this more than the other. Sooo, enjoy if you like cracky stories with bad grammar.
> 
> The prompt is from 'otpprompts' in Tumblr.

Jacob Kowalski was leaving the building when he sees this beautiful blonde, chatting with Director Percival Graves. Without realizing, Jacob slows down his steps to take a better look, and Director Graves calls him to join them when he sees him. Jacob couldn’t remember ever being this happy because he had been called by him.

He greets them and Graves introduces the women as she holds out a hand to shake.

“Mr.Kowalski, this is Queenie Goldstein, famous novelist P. E. Goldstein’s editor and manager. She and her sister accepted our offer, and from now on we will be publishing P. E.’s books.”

“Wow, really?! This is amazing! Welcome to Obscurus. I’m Jacob Kowalski, currently Newt Scamander’s editor. Very pleased to meet you!” They smile as they shake hands.

“Oh, really?” Queenie says with an excited expression, “I love his _Fantastic Beasts_ series! Though he didn’t publish anything new after them, I think.”

“Not it fiction, no. He’s currently working on his actual field. He’s writing a zoology book for kids.”

“Really? Oh, that’s adorable! Like _Serpente Salamandra_ huh?” she asks, giggling.

“Every artwork has something from the artist in it, I guess,” Jacob answers simply.

Graves opens his mouth to say something but he sees Abernathy walking towards them with pile of files in his hands. “Excuse me, I need to go. Welcome again, Miss Goldstein. Have nice day Mr.Kowalski,” he says and with that, he goes to Abernathy.

“Is he always this working? I’ve never seen a desk like his before,” Queenie asks as she watches Graves disappear from their sight. Jacob shakes his shoulders, “I don’t remember a single day his desk is empty,” he says.

“So, P. E. Goldstein’s editor huh?” Jacob changes the subject and puts his hands in his coat's pockets. “How is it like to be working with her? I mean, Newt writes only fantasy or zoology. I sometimes wonder what would it be like working on other than real or non-real animals. And you are also sisters!” he smiles at her laugh when he finishes.

“It’s actually really fun if you can stand to her secretive and perfectionist attitude. It drives me nuts sometimes,” she says but her smile tells him that she doesn’t mean anything bad by it. They slowly walk towards the exit as they continue to talking.

“Yeah, I understand. Newt could be really secretive too sometimes, but he leaves the ‘perfectionist’ part to me. He may have a great imagination, but his grammar is a mess.”

Queenie giggles again and they continue to talk about their jobs and such, until they reach to the door and step in to the cold fall day. Jacob plugs up his courage before she goes to her way, “So, you got any plans? I know a really good coffee shop just around the corner if you’d like?”

“Oh, I’d love to!” Queenie says and he holds his arm out for her to link their arms.


	2. Chapter 2

“Oh, come on Mauler!” Tina groans when she comes back to her desk, only to see her cat laying on top of her laptop. Again.

“I need to get those done, now get up!” she makes a move to pull her up, but the cat gets a hold of it and almost makes it fall down from the desk.

“Nonono. Let it go,” she gently saves her laptop from her paws but doesn’t let go of them as she sits down. She reaches to her armpits and takes her to her arms, kissing her head as she did so. “I do want to spend time with you too, but Picquery will have my head if I don’t finish this on time,” she says, tilting her head a little. Mauler meows at her angrily, her eyes slightly narrowed.

“Sorry, but Picquery’s look is more terrifying than yours,” Tina sits her down on her legs and starts to erase the meaningless letters Mauler typed. It makes her smile.

“Now, let me finish this and I’m all yours,” She says and winces as Mauler makes herself comfortable on her legs. She meows again but its a more pleasant one this time, and lets Tina go back to her work.

She may not realize it, but Tina bites her bottom lip as her hands get faster and faster. She writes the big finale, the big reveal that no one will see coming.

As she writes the last words, her doorbell rings and she comes back to the reality. But she doesn’t make a move to go and answer it. It was probably Queenie, and she had a key but she always tried to make Tina get up and open the door, much to her annoyance.

Tina types her last words and leans back in satisfaction as Queenie opens the door and announces the obvious, “Queenie here!”

“ _What a twist!_  ” Tina yells from her room but Queenie's joy doesn't get affected by her sass as always. Especially today. Queenie walks to the kitchen as she takes quick glances into her sister's apartment. Tina enters after her with Mauler in her arms. “You have keys Queenie! Why ring every time?” She asks as she lets Mauler down.

“Because you-,” Queenie starts, but Tina beats her to it, “Because you never leave your room! Well, I needed to. I had a whole season to write and you know Picquery wanted it early.” She snaps but continues more gently, “Buuuut, the good news is, I just finished it!” She makes a little, funny dance as she goes to the coffee machine.

“Really?” Queenie smiles brightly as she settles down on a chair.

“Yeah,” Tina says, now, a little shy smile forming on her lips, “I was typing the last words when you came in.” She starts the coffee machine and looks around for a glass to drink water. Queenie asks while putting her chin under her chin, a sly look on her face, “So... are you free tomorrow?”

Tina glaces at her suspiciously. “Yes, I am,” she says as she fills a glass with water, “But you’re not. You need to take a look at it before sending it to Seraphina.” She says looking over her glass.

Queenie eyes her with the satisfaction of knowing she was about to erase that smug look off of her face, “Well, not anymore. You have a signature day to attend tomorrow.” Tina chokes on her water and Queenie manages to stifle her laugh.

“What-” She tries to talk between coughs, “I did- I did one just a month ago!”

“It’s not yours, don’t you worry. You’ll be a guest. A surprise one actually. I want you to meet someone,” Queenie explains and holds out a napkin. Tina excepts it and thinks for a moment with the napkin on her mouth before answering.

“Did you met someone and want me to meet him, or are you trying to set me up with someone?” Tina asks with narrowed eyes.

 _Actually, both._ Queenie thinks but doesn’t voice her mind, “I met someone. He’s an editor like me. We met when I went to Obscurus to give the last sign.” She adds the time precisely.

“That was two months ago,” Tina says. “Why you didn’t tell me?” She asks but Queenie's look says it all.

“Was I a crazy witch again?” Tina asks, remembering their inside joke.

“Yeah, I didn’t tell you because you were so busy and all,” Queenie says extra bitterly to make her feel worse than she already is. In reality, she really didn’t tell it to her on purpose in the past two months. Nothing was serious between them back then. But now, she needs to win her sister into this, and the pouting was working.

“Who is he?” Tina asks to her as the coffee machine beeps behind her, “Any chance I know him?” She asks over her shoulder and picks up two mugs.

“Probably not, that’s why I ask you to come tomorrow. We thought we can go out somewhere after that. The writer he’s working for will come with us as well. They are best friends, so I’ll meet him too. And to be honest, I was wanting you to meet that writer outside of this,” Queenie says but, quickly continues after Tina gives her a dirty look, “It’s not like that! I’m not trying to set you up with someone! The Internet thinks you two are rivals, but I’m pretty sure you never even met. He’s a home bird even more than you.” Tina rolls her eyes as she puts down two mugs to the table.

“I’m not that home bird. But I never heard of this before. Who thinks we are rivals?” She sips her coffee.

“There is this hardcore fans arguing over who is better, you or the one you’ll meet tomorrow. Personally, I found it weird, considering you two write for different genres,”

Tina listens and pokes her mind to find some clues.

“Is it Abigail R. Cankus?” Tina guesses.

“No. I told you, you probably never met them. I doubt you ever read any of their books,” Queenie sips her own coffee, “You’d probably say ‘bunch of nonsense’ if you had.”

“Aha! So they write romance right?” Queenie shakes her head.

“Fantasy?” Tina tries again but fails. “Gimme a clue!”

“No. You’ll find out tomorrow. And I also want to point out, you write romance in your books too. You just prefer to kill them off before they acknowledge their feelings.” Queenie says bitterly.

Tina sighs, “Get over it Queenie, you know he was gonna die from the start,” she rolls her eyes behind her mug.

“Never, I literally begged you to let him live but you didn’t even listen to me,” she stands up under Tina’s confused look. “Now, show me what you wrote before Mauler attacks me. Because now,  _I_ keep her hooman away,” she says, and Tina realizes that Mauler was indeed staring at Queenie. While both Tina and Queenie knew that they were two of the three people in the world that could pet her, Mauler’s face was so ridiculous that they can’t help but laugh at her.

* * *

 

Newt dives right into it as Jacob opens his phone, “I finished it!” He yells, “I finished it! And I’m currently sending it to you Jacob,” Newt says while watching the little envelope folding itself in the screen.

“That’s great news! Now, you have something to say tomorrow when they ask you what you are working on!” Jacob exclaims and waits for an answer.

But there was none.

“Don’t tell me you forgot,” Jacob says in a serious voice, Newt doesn’t break his silence.

 “Oh, come on Newt! I said it to you again a week ago!” 

Newt keeps his silence a little longer and Jacob doesn’t need to see him to know that he is scratching his neck when he talks, “Yeah, I forgot about that.” Jacob sighs and Newt asks, “When?”

“Three o’clock at MACUSA. Tell me you at least didn’t forget the dinner. I invited some special guests that I want you to meet.”

Newt suddenly gets tense, “What, who? When I agreed to do that?” He asks.

“Uh. When I asked you to?” Jacob answers simply.

“Why, I agreed to do this again?”

“Because we’re best friends and you owe me a favor since you made me spend a night in jail,” Jacob answers, unimpressed.

“Can you stop saying it that way?” Newt scrubs his eyes and leans back on his chair.

“Only if you come with your will. Come on Newt! When was the last time you went to dinner with other people outside for work?”

Newt falls to silence again, he could hear Theseus voice in his head, saying that sentence too. But he really don't wants to.

But he also really owed to Jacob.

“ _Fine_ , who are they?” He surrenders.

“You’ll meet tomorrow. A writer and an editor. I’m uh- friends with the editor,” Newt doesn’t lose the tone he used on the word _friends._

“You want me to meet your girlfriend aren’t you?” Newt accuses him.

“Yes, and if you were a better best friend, you’d know her already,” Jacob sasses and Newt feels bad at his words.

“Plus, we agreed with her that we won’t tell you two who is the other. There is this war in the internet about you and them being rivals, and we want to see how it’ll turn out if you actually meet.”

Newt didn’t know anything about this, “What do you mean rivals?”

You know fans, they love to fight with each other. They are new favorite thing is arguing over you or them being better. But like you and I, they are pretty close too. So me and she agreed it would be a surprise to you. So please wait until tomorrow and don’t Google it whatsoever. I actually can’t wait to see your fans faces when they get to see you two together.”

Just thinking all the crowd makes Newt feel uneasy, now with writer to meet. He sighs, but there is no escape. “See you tomorrow Jacob.”

“Hey, don’t feel bad. You may not enjoy the crowd but they coming for you! They love you,” he tries to cheer him up a little, but he hangs up when Newt only grumbles as his response.

Sighing, Newt throws his phone to his messy desk and leans back on his chair. He stares at the ceiling as he thinks tomorrow. Signing all those books and forced smiles was flying in his head. Now with dinner afterwards. With other two people that he didn’t even know their names.

 _Worrying means you suffer twice._ The little voice in his head says, and he decides to listen it. Tomorrow didn’t come yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just saying, I already wrote some more chapters, but I decided to change things in them, and I'm also not quite satisfied with somethings too. So, I can't post new things regularly, but I'll try my best to keep the gaps short.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A giant thanks to @njckle for beta reading and bearing with me!

“I’m almost there Queenie. I’ll be there shortly,” Tina says curtly before hanging up on Queenie. Queenie lets out of breath in relief and slips her phone back to her purse. Tina was late because of the traffic, not because she decided to not show up. Relieved, she quietly makes her way back to Jacob in the crowded bookshop.

“She comin’?” he asks in a sotto voice.

“Yeah, she’s stuck at the traffic,” she whispers back to not disturb the silence. The only person who talks is Newt, and he is the one everybody listens with all ears. Little kids to grown adults, everybody was listening him in all ears.

“It’s better this way. People are so engaged with Newt right know that they probably won’t notice her.” Jacob says and Queenie nods. They continue to listen Newt talk about his first ideas for _Serpente Salamandra,_ what made him to write the story the way it is?

Ten minutes after the phone call, Tina enters to the bookstore. She looks around and searches for her sister in the sea of people who are sitting on any place they could sit, including the floor and stairs. There are some adults cosplaying some sort of animals alongside little kids. Parents, who has their childs on their lap. She finds it very different than her meetings. Sure, hers are as crowded as this and some people cosplays too, but they are mostly adults or at least young adults. Not 7 year old kids.

She spots Queenie waving to her from the back. And Tina thinks she has a good guess who was the man standing behind her. She carefully makes her way towards them behind the people's chairs. Her back brushes against the bookshelves as she sidewalks. She takes a quick look to the writer when she reaches a little bit wider place and…Tina stops. _Newt Scamander?_ The author of the _Fantastic Beasts_?

Seriously? Of all people, Queenie found his editor to date? Tina was going to kill Queenie for dragging her into this mess of a meeting. But she doesn’t voice her thoughts. Especially not in a room full of fans who loved listening about a magic-animal-lover’s mumbo-jumbo.

“Oh, hey,” Queenie greets her with a whisper and hugs her. “You made it!” Tina uses this opportunity to whisper her sister's ear. “You’re fired.” Queenie smirks when she pulls back, and steps aside for the man behind her. The man beside her holds his hand out to shake, he had a friendly face. "Oh, hey! You must be Queenie's sister. Jacob Kowalski."

Tina takes his hand, “P. E. Goldstein, nice to meet you.”

“You can call her Tina,” Queenie whispers to him, causing Tina to roll her eyes. She takes off her wool coat in the hot room and turns to the talking author. After some time watching, she notices he doesn’t make eye contact for more than two seconds with anybody. She finds it rather strange. After almost one hour, Newt Scamander finally starts to take questions from the audience. From experience, Tina knows this can take even longer. She should look out for any place to sit, or at least put her heavy coat somewhere.

“Do you want to ask any questions?” Queenie whispers to Tina when Jacob goes beside Newt to help him with the questions. “I think some people have recognized you. It can be fun.” Queenie glances at the excited hands on the air.

“Oh, no way Queenie. I know what his books are about. I already don’t like magic on its own, and his books are even worse.” Tina keeps her voice low.

“So you read them before?” Queenie asks in disbelief.

“I tried because of all the fuss about it, but I fell asleep everytime I picked up the book. It didn’t make any sense to me,” Tina whispers back carefully. “So, I’ll just quietly wait till this is over. And keep my thoughts to myself at the dinner.”

Queenie doesn’t push further and they continue to watch people ask questions. But not long after, some girl with braids who has been staring at Tina for over a minute, holds up her hand and asks Newt with excitement, “Do you know about the recent debate about you and P. E. Goldstein? People think you two are rivals.”

 _P. E. Goldstein?_ “No, I don’t.” Newt answers and continues, “Haven’t meet or read any of his books,” he fiddles with his pen. “He was writing sci-fi right? Not really my cup of tea,” he jokes but he hears Jacob’s tiny intake of breath beside him instead of a laugh.

“ _Oh_ ,” Tina hears Queenie beside her. She probably thinks Tina will call him out, but this isn’t the first time someone was assuming P. E. was a man's name. It was one of the reasons Tina choose this name in the first place really... but since her fame, it was getting a little annoying. Still, she doesn’t get angry. In fact, she decides to have some fun, teaching him a lesson about not judging a book by its cover.

So, Tina takes a step forward to ask the next question before Queenie could stop her. “Why you don’t like sci-fi, Mr.Scamander?” She asks calmly.

The shop suddenly fills with surprised gasps, and she’d be lying if she said that she didn’t enjoy them. Though, Newt Scamander seems unaware of their reason.

“Well, I find it too depressing and confusing, to be honest. I still have no idea what _The Zone_ is about and why people are crazy about it,” he answers and Tina’s face drops. She hears giggles and suddenly, her plans of having some friendly fun disappears from her mind. She opens her mouth to speak, but he beats her to it.

“Do you like sci-fi, miss?” he asks and the giggles became open laughs much to his confusion.

Tina tries to not act on temper, but its hard not to, “Ah, yes. I actually _quite_ like sci-fi. Especially P. E.’s books. I recommend you reading them if you ever get tired of Salamander.” Tina folds her arms and ignores the waves of laughter around her.

“Oh. I uh-?” Newt mumbles for a moment. _Where did this came from?_ “Why I would ever get tired of him?” he blurts out, the air starts feel a bit too warm.

“I don’t know… his only hobby is saving weird and dangerous animals. That's all he has going for him. No friends or anything else interesting.” She frowns down for a second and raises her head again. “Did you inspired him from yourself?”

Queenie exclaims a shrill “ _Teen!_ ” and grips her arm tightly. There are other gasps too, but Tina keeps her ground. She locks her eyes with him and is pleased to see he doesn’t run away from it this time. What she said was personal, she knew, but Tina couldn’t find in herself to care. Newt’s voice gets louder when he speaks, Tina hears the anger in it.

“So P. E. is much better than me?” He slowly stands up and puts his hands on the table, face as red as a tomato, “Then why did you come here today? Are you some sort of fan that trying to catch his attention?” People laugh at his words like its the funniest thing they ever heard. Which makes Tina redder than him. She raises her voice to make herself heard in the clamor.

“No. Not at all. I just thought it would be ‘fun’ meeting my ‘rival’. But I was wrong terribly. Because counting you as my rival is an insult to my talents!”

The coin finally drops and Newt realizes who was he talking to all along. He looks to the side, becomes defensive and challenging all at once. “So what? You think your stereotypical androids are more interesting than my creatures,” he says. “Even your implicit metaphors are lacking creativity—barely understandable, even to the most advanced readers.”

“And you are one of those advanced readers? Ha! Sorry to break it to you, but your most original idea was combining a lion and a puffer fish! We can ask Nancy K. Stouffer if you don’t believe me.”

Newt says something back but Tina hears nothing. She sees Jacob trying to calm down everybody, Queenie tugging harshly at her arm, and suddenly the air feels too hot to breathe. But she doesn’t lose her ground and doesn’t slip her eyes from Newts. They stare at each other with lightnings in their eyes and Tina yanks her arm from Queenie and turns on the spot and storms off. She stops herself from elbowing anybody who dares to stand in her way and rushes out to the street. Some people calls after her while some of them just watches. Queenie looks at Jacob for a millisecond before she follows her furious sister.

Tina continues her angry pace to her car. Her heeled boots clacks loudly on the walkway. Queenie follows her right behind and apologizes again and again. But her sister doesn’t even turn her head.

“I just thought this could be fun-” Queenie says reaching for Tina’s arm.

“ _Fun?_ ” Tina stops suddenly and turns to her. She points an accusing finger at her. “I looked like a complete idiot in front of all those people! They had quite the show as they watched the award-winning Goldstein make a fool of herself! Didn’t you see how they laughed at me!”

“At _him_ , because he didn’t recognize you!” Queenie tries and lets her hands fall on her either side.

“To not recognize someone Queenie, you have know who they are first.” She says walking around her car. “And that man didn’t even know P. E. was a woman.” She unlocks the doors. “Have fun at the dinner,” she says lastly and closes the door forcefully.

Queenie watches her leave as tears sting on her eyes. She could try to go after her, but she knew it would only make it worse. Tina needed time to calm down. “I’m gonna pour that cup of tea down on his head,” Queenie says between her gritted teeth and turns back to go inside.

* * *

 

“How could I know it was her?” Newt exclaims when Queenie gives a break from roasting him. “I didn’t even know she was a woman!”

Jacob almost yells from the driver seat, “Then why did you speak like you did, but ignored it on purpose? In front of all those people! And, I told you she will be there too. So even if you didn’t know how she looked, you still insulted her and her work in front of people, knowing she was there. Your fans thought you did it on purpose.”

“So is Tina,” Queenie adds, and Newt doesn’t say anything to this. “She probably wouldn’t turn it into a fight if you didn’t talk about The Zone that way,” Queenie says without turning her head back. “She got angry because people recognized her, but you didn’t stop talking about her as a 3rd party. Like others, she thought you were doing it on purpose to mock her, and went mad.”

They dive in silence for a couple minutes. All of three waits for the others to start it all again.

“You need to apologize from each other,” Jacob starts and Newt tries to protest. But Queenie steps in, “You _both_ will, or I will make you two _wish_ you did.”

Newt only knew Queenie for a couple of minutes, but he had a feeling that she could, and would. He lets out a huff, and a thought, more terrifying than Queenie, comes into his mind. “Do you think people will talk about this?” He asks to the front.

“They are talking about it already. Twitter went crazy. Someone recorded you and people are tweeting on _#notmycupoftea_. Tina doesn’t have an official account but she has a personal one. If she saw this, you’re dead,” Queenie says. Newt just groans and hides his face into his hands.

* * *

 

“I’ll break that cup on your head,” Tina grumbles as she goes through the hashtag. She lays on the couch with Mauler her chest, murmuring softly while watching Tina. She feels her owners stress, and tries to relax her. But Tina is unaware of her efforts. Her right hand continues to tap angrily on her phone.

She ignores the memes, and aside from the _‘Someone finally put her into her place’_ and _‘He is right, it’s been two seasons and I still have no idea what The Zone is about’_ tweets, there were people defending her and her works. The fact that those people weren’t few, makes her feel much better. Yet, the tweets coming from her friends and colleagues weren’t so defensive over her, but not offensive in that matter. They weren’t happy with what she and Newt did, but thankfully they were kind enough to not tag or reveal her account. They were calling her out still.

She closes her phone and turns to her cat, who was gently touching her cheek with her paw. The sight relaxes Tina a little. She closes her eyes and takes deep slow breaths to ease her mind. But her phone rings suddenly and she jumps out of her reverie. She takes it to mute it, thinking it’s Queenie. But it was someone she couldn’t be angry at.

“Hello Credence,” she opens it with a sigh, staring at the ceiling as he speaks.

“Hey. I saw this thing on the internet and- How are you? What happened?” he asks gently.

Tina starts to tell with such a speed that she surprises herself. “Queenie wanted me to meet her boyfriend and she said he was an editor too. So they planed about inviting me and his best friend -that author- to dinner after their meeting. I usually don’t go other people’s meetings without being invited by them, but I accepted it for Queenie.” Tina suddenly needs some fresh air and walks to open a window even if its real cold outside.

“So, I went to the meeting, found out the writer was Newt Scamander, and apparently there was this debate about us being rivals, which I never heard before.” She takes a studying breath and continues, “Anyways I listened his talking for about an hour with Queenie at the back, standing up all the time. My feet were starting to ache, and all I wanted to do was finding a place to sit. But someone asked him ‘does he know about that debate?’. 

And the yahoo just went, ‘I never read any of _his_ books, did HE wrote sci-fi? NOT my cup of tea.” She closes the window and walks back to the couch.

“He? He thought you were a man?” Credence asks in disbelief.

“Yes. At first, I wasn’t too pissed off about it, actually decided to play along then reveal myself later to surprise him. So I stepped out and asked him why he doesn’t like sci-fi. And guess what? He said he finds sci-fi depressing and confusing, giving Zone as an example and, he did know I was in the audience. Because Jacob should have told him as Queenie had told me. There were some people who recognized me, and they started to laugh. After that, I just lost it. I admit I might went too far, but I won’t apologize for it.”

Credence doesn’t interrupt her once and takes a moment before answering, “OK, this was a story,” he lets out the breath he was holding.

“Tell me about it,” Tina mutters.

“So what are you gonna do?” He asks.

“I don’t know. In the short run, probably go to sleep early and tomorrow call Queenie to apologize. I snapped at her out of anger,” she sighs loudly and makes Credence flinch on the other side. 

“I’ll figure it out what to do with her,” Tina sighs, “I’ll be fine Credence.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah,” she says, and realizes they only talked about her scene, “How are you?”

“Good. Fighting with finals.”

“You’ll be coming to New York in the break?” Tina asks, smiling a little.

“If Mauler doesn’t mind .” The joke makes her chuckle suddenly, startling Mauler, “Good night Credence.”

“Good night Tina,” he hangs up.

Tina turns to the cat, “You be nice to him this time, would you?”

Mauler yawns.

* * *

 

Newt lays on his couch, his feet are on the coffee table with Dougal on his lap and Niffler around his neck. He watches his comfort movie in silence with his company but his phone rings and breaks the moment. He picks it up and unintentionally grimaces when he sees who was calling, but he opens it anyway. “Hello.”

“Hullo, little brother. I heard the news and called you to celebrate,” Newt knows Theseus was up to something that will probably annoy him but asks what for, just to get over it. “I just found out what happened today, and I just wanted to congratulate you for pulling the limits even higher. I don’t think any other man in the world could piss off a woman faster or more than you. Or anyone actually.” Theseus starts to laugh much to Newt’s annoyance. And he continues to talk before Newt can. “You really didn’t know it was her? Like- mate, come on! Wasn’t Bunty a fan of her show? She and Leta told me that sometimes she was doing cameos like Stan Lee?”

Newt was so close to throwing his phone to a wall. “Yes, she was apparently. But I stopped watching the series after the third episode. _Because it was boring._ ” He thinks of a way to end this conversation, or at least this topic. “How is mom?”

Good. But she thinks both of you needs to apologize. You first. Be the bigger person.”

“Yeah. No way I’m apologizing from that narcissist.” He snaps.

“AH... Yes, you will!” Leta suddenly yells on the phone and his ear starts to ring. “Do you really think she will come and apologize from you, because you didn't like her books and humilated her?"

“Leta, not you too.” He rubs his face and stops Niffler from biting the remote.

“How can you not know who she was Newt? I mean don’t you even watch TV?”

“Goodnight to both of you,” Newt says and hangs up to her face. He saves the remote from Niffler again and continues to watch 101 Dalmatians in a much lower mood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really bad at word fights in real life. So if this was off, sorry.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo an update! I tried somethings in this, I hope you guys like it. If not tell me, good or bad!

“I still can’t believe you didn’t recognize her,” Bunty says while noting the file at her hand. “Like I must have seen her ten times in interviews. She even made several cameos in the series.”

Newt doesn’t answer at first and tries to busy himself with a sick raccoon, but he can feel Bunty’s eyes on him. “Yeah, she was just the waiter girl for me,” Newt says impatiently. “Can you just give me that file?” He holds out his hand from where he stands in front of a cage.

“You forget that time where she was Cor’s girlfriend. The whole Tumblr went nuts,” she gives the file to the grumpy Newt. “But it’s normal for you to not know, since you don’t use Tumblr. You don’t even have a Twitter account.”

“I have,” Newt protests.

“Fantastic Beasts’ account doesn’t count.” Bunty says.

Newt rolls his eyes and they work in silence for a couple minutes. When Newt almost believes that she let it go, Bunty starts it all over again. “-For the record, your words about fans were very rude Newt. I’m offended.”

Newt puts his pen rather forcely to a table, “Bunty, I want to ask a question.” He leans on the table with one hand, “Did you spend your free week preparing to tease me?”

Bunty grins and opens her mouth to answer, but the door suddenly opens and beats her to it.

A breathless Hagrid comes in with several files and other stuff in his arms, “Sorry I’m late. I only finished my work at the clinic.” He walks to the large table in the center of the room and lets go everything he holds loudly. Some animals react it with little screams but he seems unaware as he goes to take off his coat.

“No harm done,” Newt says while grimacing at the animals noises. He throws Bunty a dirty look to stop her, but she returns it with a malicious smile.

“Hey Hagrid,” she starts. “You fancy a cuppa?” Bunty wishes she could take a picture of Newt’s ridiculous face.

“Oh, that would be great. I had a rough mornin’ ya see,” giant looking man smiles as he waves at the baby crocodile Norbert’ cage.

Newt leaves the room immediately, excusing himself for Hagrid’s tea. He hears Bunty’s giggle behind him, but his phone rings before he could turn around and say something. He closes the door glaring at her one last time.

He fiddles his pockets to find his phone, and opens it with a sigh, “Good morning Jacob.”

“Hi, how are ya?”

Newt looks around to find a clean cup for Hagrid’s tea. “Bunty teased me the whole morning. Apparently she practiced this morning on her week off, and she is currently calling Hagrid to join her.” He rubs his eyes, and leans on the counter. “So I’m great.”

“Well I have very good news for you then,” Jacob deadpans. “Queenie just called, she said she convinced Tina to meet and apologize to you. You’ll meet tomorrow at that coffee shop behind Obscurus.”

“What?!” Honestly, he had hoped that she wouldn’t.

“Don’t worry, it’s not like she feels sorry. She’ll be doing it to continue The Zone. The company will cancel it if she doesn’t apologize from you.” Jacob says.

“Well that doesn’t sound like my problem does it?” Newt can’t say he isn’t satisfied.

“No, it is your problem. The company wants to look nice to your fans by doing that, but what they forget is half of them are also her fans. They might think you asked the company to do it. They only side with you because the upcoming Beast’ movies will bring more money than The Zone. But, if Tina tells the public why its canceled -which she probably will-. Fans will be angry at the company, therefore you for letting it.”

Newt takes a second before answering, “Well, in this scenario I am the one who actually needs to apologize because the bigger effect will be on me. Why she swallows her pride for a TV series? Can’t she switch channels or somethinfg?”

“She doesn’t want to lose the actors and the director. Their contract wouldn’t let them leave with her. Also not just for that, Graves also called. He said if you two don’t apologize from each other, you can say goodbye to Obscurus.”

Newt insists on finding new excuses, “Well they are not the only publisher in the business, right?”

“Newt!” Jacob finally blows. “How long do you think you can continue to act like a child? You two supposed to be role models. Do you have any idea how much this damages your image? Did you ever see what people are saying about you two? You guys need to clean up the mess you did.”

When Newt doesn’t talk Jacob continues flatly. “Let me put it this way, if the movies don’t make good money, you can say goodbye to your wildlife protection park idea in Africa.”

Newt is still in silence because he knows Jacob is right. He also knows that her apologize is for herself, not because she feels bad. So it’s more like a deal than an apology. They only had to act nice and sincere for an hour at the most, then they didn’t have to see each other ever again. Newt sighs, “Fine.”

“Good to see you finally got the point. By the way, you two also have to come to Obscurus after that. They’ll take a pic of you and after saying something about you realized your mistake and yada yada, you’re free.”

Newt already feels tired and ill at the thought. Tomorrow was going to be a long day.

* * *

Tina wakes up with a jolt of pain in her stomach that makes her curl into a ball and moan in pain, “Maullerr-”

She buries her head onto her pillow and Mauler seems to realize her mistake. She slowly starts to paw Tina gently and makes little noises that almost sounds like apologizing.

Speaking of.

Tina moans once more, but this time it’s because of disgust instead of pain. She curls into a smaller ball and decides to not get out of the bed today, but since Mauler is in the dark about her plan, she gets worried when Tina doesn’t move for some time. Her movements become more urgent as she still doesn't react.

Despite the troubles twirling in her head, Tina slowly gets out of her little cocoon to let Mauler know she was okay. She reaches and scratches behind Mauler’s ears, which she likes very much. She immediately head bumps with her. A smile forms on Tina’s lips as she speaks with a sleepy voice, “I hate the idea of apologizing but I don’t have much options do I?”

Mauler meows and bumps her head one last time before jumping out of the bed. Tina watches the curly tail go to the kitchens direction from bed. After closing her eyes for a couple of seconds, she lazyly gets out of from bed to join her for breakfast.

* * *

 Newt has been trying to stop Dougal from coming after him for the past ten minutes. “Dougal I know today is Central Park day and you have no idea how much I rather just do that, but I can’t! So please, would-you-stay-behind-the-door?!”

Dougal doesn’t stop though, but he lets out a painful cry when Newt accidentally hurts his paw and he runs back inside while Newt closes the door, saying sorry after sorry. He sighs and walks down the stairs while checking his watch. He isn't going to be late at least. The soon they meet, the soon they are free. They just have to act for two hours at the most. He doubts Miss Goldstein would insist to spend more time with him.

He steps into the colder-than-yesterday weather and stops the first taxi he sees. A text comes from Jacob when he gets in.

“ **Please tell me you’re on your way and you didn’t just woke up.** ”

“ **Ah, no. When you ever saw me sleeping till noon? :/** ” Newt texts back, slightly offended.

“ **Never but I was just afraid that you wouldn’t show up and mess things up even worse. Can u blame me?¯\\_(ツ)_/¯** ”

“ **Don’t worry. I don’t plan to start another fight.** ”

“ **Good, so does Tina. See you guys later in Obscurus.** ”

Newt frowns at his text. “ **Who’s Tina?** ” He texts back.

“ **Are you serious Newt?** ” Jacob texts.

“ **?** ” 

Jacob texts fast, “ **The name of the women you are about to meet?!** ”

“ **Oh wait sorry- PorpenTina. She uses Tina for short.** ”

“ **But I suggest you don’t use it yet.** ”

Newt rolls his eyes and closes his phone. He watches the gray blur of the city as the taxi takes him to his destination.

* * *

 Tina finds a free parking spot close to the coffee shop and parks her rather large car with little effort. She checks her phone and she sees she is right on time. She gets out of the car and walks to the coffee shop. A bell rings as she opens the door and she is greeted by the scent of delicious coffee.

She looks around the cozy-looking place. Some people are enjoying their drinks with their company at the tables. Some are on the comfortable looking red seats at the back of the shop. Two baristas are working behind the counter while a waiter tell something funny to them.

Though, Mr.Scamander is nowhere in sight. Tina looks for an empty table and sees one beside the large windows. She takes off her coat and sits down. She glances at the busy street behind the glass, then at the shop again. She thinks if she were here to meet with a friend, she would very enjoy her time here.

Not long after, the shops bell rings again and Mr.Scamander enters the shop this time. His eyes glances over the place and finds her. Tina doesn’t miss his grimace as he does so but she ignores it. She stands up when he arrives, they greet and shake hands in fake kindness.

They sit in front of each other and fall into an uncomfortable silence, can’t finding anything to chat. Tina wants to stand up and run away from the scene but she can’t. She can sense he feels the same way too, and he waits for her to start the conversation but she isn’t any better than him. The silence continues until the waiter comes for their orders.

Tina orders coffee and so does Newt. He would have order tea normally, but she may take it in the wrong way and Newt wants this to end as fast as it can. After the waiter, Tina waits a little longer before clearing her throat and diving right into the subject.

“So... thanks for agreeing to meet,” she begins. “Yes. I thank you too. I didn’t think you would.” _Did that sound bad?_

Tina narrows her eyes slightly, but she gives a thin smile when she speaks again, “Why I wouldn’t? I’m not an unagreeable person. Also, I said pretty ugly things.” _Not that I regret any of them._

“Well-” Newt starts but gets cut by their orders. They take a sip from their drinks before Newt starts again. He continues to maintain eye contact and it starts to irritate Tina. “I, uh- Jacob told me you were going to be there too that day, but I forgot. I had no idea you was you, so I didn’t talk to you that way on purpose.” _That’s too many you’s Newt!_  He takes a breath, “It wasn’t my intention to humiliate you in front of people. I spoke my mind a little too much, I guess. It wasn’t in a nice way.” He wets his lips and looks into her eyes for a brief second. “And I apologize for it.”

Tina shakes her head slowly and leans back a little, “Apology accepted, and I apologize for my words too. I shouldn’t let my anger get the best of me. I may took it too far.”

 _‘May’ took it too far? You accused me for stealing!_ Newt keeps his face neutral, “Well. You could’ve just correct me immediately, _but_ I except yours too,” he says and takes another sip his coffee. It is surprisingly tasteful, but her look is not so much.

“I just wanted to give you a lesson about not judging a book by its cover. It was’t my intention to turn this into a fight. We saw how openminded you were.” Her eyes are narrowed again.

Newt thinks if he had ordered tea, she would have poured it on him right now. Better not provoke her, “Look- Miss Goldstein, I said my opinions in a very unpleasant way and I’m really sorry for it. Can we end this from now on?”

Tina eyes him and gives a little nod. She gets a hold of herself and they fall in silence again. Tina watches the street as Newt checks the clock behind her in every twenty seconds. It’s had been fifteen minutes since he arrived and they apologized from each other. Though, they were so close to starting it all over.

Newt looks at her again after checking the clock once more, but he realizes that her eyes are locked into something outside. He turns on his seat to see what was it and he finds something really unexpected.

His colleague, almost 6’7’’ Hagrid, enters the coffee shop with a... leopard fur suit on? _What?_

Hagrid nervously looks inside the coffee shop from the door, his face curls into a baffled expression when he sees Newt and Tina, but it immediately changes into a happy one when he recognizes them. Newt and Tina stand up as he walks to their table.

“Newt! Tina! What a pleasant surprise! What are ya doin’ here?” He hugs them both quickly and bows his head between them to whisper, “Are ya here for a date like me?” He wiggles his eyebrows with a meaning look.

“W- What?” Newt stutters but Tina is quick to speak.

“No no no! No, Hagrid. Uh- Mr.Scamander and I just met here to apologize from each other. You must heard what happened in his meeting last week,” Tina says and Newt looks at her confused.

Hagrid speaks a little more seriously, “Yes I did. Bunty told me. Good to see ya two are no longer angry with each other.” he says and Tina forces a smile while shaking her head.

“Do you know each other?” Newt asks, looking one to another.

“Yes. Hagrid is my cat's vet.” Tina answers, not quite looking at him.

A mention of her cat is enough to open Hagrid’s mouth, “Ah fluffy little thing, Mauler is! I wish ya could see her Newt. She’s even fluffier than Dougal!” He tilts his head towards Tina, “And Miss Goldstein here is one of the sweetest persons you could ever met!”

Tina bows down her head with embarrassment and quickly turns the tables against him. “Thank you Hagrid, but I want to ask something. You said you are here for a date. Who is she Hagrid?” She asks using the same suggestive tone he used a moment ago. She relishes his blush.

“I- yes. She must be here in short. Madam Maxime.” He says and adds, “She is French.”

“Ooh. Then we shouldn’t hold you up Hagrid.” Tina says and makes a face at Newt. He takes the hint and follows her, “Yes, yes. We were heading out anyways.” Tina nods and they both wish Hagrid a nice date as they walk to the register. Hagrid spruces his suit and sits down on their now empty table.

Tina steps out from the shop first and realizes the weather is even colder. Both of them wrap their coats tighter around themselves and Tina stops herself from offering to drive them to Obscurus’ building. She doesn’t know if he came with his car too, and she doesn’t want to look for a new place to park for a short distance.

They walk in silence for a couple minutes and Newt suddenly speaks, “I want to ask a question if I may?”

Tina turns her head for a brief second, “Shoot.” She looks ahead.

“No offense but- What kind of name is Mauler?” He frowns.

She answers defensively, “Full offense- What kind of name is Dougal?”

Newt sighs but chooses to not answer her. Still, he asks out of curiosity and show he doesn’t mean any harm, “What’s her breed?”

Tina takes another quick glance at him, “Hagrid says she is a Maine Coon or at least part of it. We are not sure, I found her on the street so.” She answers while watching her feet with her hands in her pockets. Her voice wasn’t so defensive this time.

Newt takes it as a good sign, “She was a stray?”

“Yeah, but probably not from birth, because when I adopted her in after her treatment at Hagrid, she had no trouble with the indoors life. Her old owner probably threw her out to the street after they got bored of her. She didn’t look like she was a master of survival when I found her you see. She was very thin and weak, wounded from her right paw. She was moaning in pain behind a dumpster.”

“She must lived quite an adventure,” Newt says in a sad voice.

“Yes. She was afraid of me at first. It took me a while, but I managed to take her to Hagrid that day. I adopted her after that and she is with me ever since.” A tiny smile finds its way to her lips.

Newt realizes that in everything that came out of her mouth, these were the most sincere ones Newt ever heard. Her little smile too.

“What breed is Dougal?” She asks.

He shrugs, “I have no idea. I adopted him from a doghouse. The officer said his ex-owner brought him there because he was too friendly to strangers.”

“Oh... He must be so sad and confused when he first came there.” Tina says sorrowly.

Newt shakes his head, “Yeah, he was. I think he didn’t believe at first that he was adopted again. It took him a while to trust me but after that he became the most clingy dog I ever seen.” Newt may be wrong, but that tiny smirk was on the corner of her mouth again. “He is quite fluffy too. He looks like a cloud.”

Her smirk becomes a smile for a split second but it disappears quickly. They walk the rest of the way without another word.

* * *

 

 _This went much smoother than I expected._ Newt thinks as he walks out of the elevator with his hands in his pockets. He is alone since Jacob and Queenie stayed back for a little chat with Graves. The other Goldstein was gone already. She literally ran away the moment Graves freed them. But he has to admit, she didn’t sass in the interview. Not even once.

Newt’s phone rings as he steps his foot on the sidewalk. He picks it out from his pocket and is surprised to see it was Hagrid. He takes this as a great opportunity for his revenge.

“Hey Hagrid, how’s the date going?” He teases.

“Oh. It’s goin’ well and I actually called ya to keep it that way,” he whispers, causing Newt to frown.

“Why?”

“There is an emergency at the clinic. I called Bunty but she’s busy. Could you go and help my assistant? If you’re not with Tina?” _Oh, I’m certainly not._

“Oh, I’m not. I can go.” he hears Hagrid’s relieved sigh and silent thanks before he hangs up. Newt puts his phone back to his pocket and looks around for a taxi, but he sees Jacob and Queenie coming out of the building.

“Hey Jacob! Can you take me to Hagrid’s clinic? He said there was an emergency.”

Jacob gives an apologetic look,“Sorry pal, we were just heading out.” Newt gives a nervous smile and starts to look around for a taxi again.

“Oh wait,” Queenie says and waves her hand to an old black car coming from the opposite side of the road. The car slows down and pulls over in front of them. The driver opens the window and... Miss Goldstein?

He tries to protest but Queenie is faster than him, “Hey Teen, Newt needs to go to Hagrid’s clinic. Can you take him with ya? He says it’s an emergency.”

“I can find a taxi-” he intervents but Queenie shushes him. “It’s on her way anyways. Right Teen?”

Tina hides her sigh and tilts her head for him to get in, “Yeah. Jump up.”

Newt shakes himself out and ducks his head as he walks around the car. He can’t help but stare at it while doing so. He opens the door in under Queenie’s smiling and Tina’s unimpressed watching.

When he takes his seat, he feels like he just traveled through time. He never had any interest in old cars, but being in one was something else he admits to himself. Tina shifts the gear quickly and the car is back on the road again.

He states the obvious after a minute, “This is an old car.”

“Yeah. 1959 Cadillac.” Tina looks at him from the corner of her eye.

“Does it have a story?” He asks out of curiosity.

“I just like old cars,” she mumbles and he doesn’t push any further. A familiar silence falls over them.

It's her who breaks it, “Something bad happened at the Hagrid’s?” 

“Yes, he called me a moment ago. He said there was an emergency and asked me to help his assistant.”

“Oh, better hurry then,” Tina says simply and speeds up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tina's car is Shasta's car from Inherent Vice. I thought this could be a fun reference.
> 
> I also want to say, I have some wild and dramatic ideas for this. I didn't tag 'crack' for nothing ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this one is not beta'd and I honestly didn't looked into it too much and posted it only with a general glance since it's been some time from the last chapter. So feel free to point out my mistakes. Other than that, I hope you guys enjoy this one.

“So, did you talk with Mauler? Will she show the decency to not hiss at me this time?” Credence asks and Tina bursts into laughter at his ongoing joke.

“Well, I talked to her but I’m not sure if she will listen to me,” Tina says as she composes herself to keep her attention on the road. They are in her car, driving to her apartment from the airport. “Maybe try to give her some bribe?” She suggests and shrugs, “You can give her some tuna fish? She likes it recently.”

"Really? Huh. I’m still surprised how you still haven’t made her addicted to hot dogs like yourself.” He giggles at her protest. She probably would throw him something like a pillow if she weren’t driving.

“You and Queenie are just dramatizing it. I’m not addicted to them.” She says and Credence laughs at this. “Really? Is that why you’re taking the long way? Y’know, the one that your favorite deli is on.” He folds his arms with a smug face.

Tina eyes him and she just knows what would erase that smug face. She shrugs and speaks in an unconcerned voice, “I mean, I could cook if you want something homemade.” She watches his face to turn green in satisfaction, and a little embarrassment.

“Let’s go and say hi to Joe then.” Credence scratches his neck, smiling sheepishly.

“Good decision,” Tina says and reaches to the radio. “How ‘bout some music on the way?”

“That would be great, but not in your choice.” He says and shoos Tina’s hand away. She lets out a dramatic gasp, “Come on! My taste in music is only as good as how bad I cook!”

“Maybe the songs you choose for Zone is not bad, but I won’t listen jazz or some other thing on all the way home,” he fiddles with radio but finds the station he was looking for and leans back in satisfaction as Tina sighs with a smile on her face.

* * *

 

Credence enters the room with coffee on his hand and glances outside the windows on his way. “ Hey, I know It’s cold and cloudy but how about a nice walk in the park?”

Tina, who drinks her morning coffee on the couch with still her pajamas on, glances at him and to the windows. She shrugs, “Sure. Just let me finish my coffee and put some pants on.” She continues to zap on TV.

Credence nods and makes a beeline to his phone on the other couch to avoid Mauler. The cat watches him with narrowed eyes from beside Tina, but she doesn’t do anything this time. 

* * *

 

Tina and Credence spend some time walking and talking about just anything that comes to their mind. After some time they started to get chilly and they decided to end their walk. As they were on their way back to the car, Credence reached to his pocket for his phone, only to find it wasn’t there. He must’ve left it on the bank they were sitting. He turns on his feet and breaks a run to get it before somebody else does, and tells Tina to continue without him.

So now, Tina leans on her car while she waits for him to come back. She would’ve wait him in the car, but something unexpected holds her from doing it. The unexpected thing, Newt Scamander was walking around in the park in haste for the past ten minutes. " _What are you up to, weirdo?"_ Tina utters to herself without taking her eyes off of him.

Unaware of being watched, Newt suddenly stops on his spot and looks around with hands on hips once more. Tina reflexively glances around too, but she doesn’t know what she was looking for.

He looks at his surrounds one last time and he walks to the exit. He turns right and walks still searching for something. Tina continues to watch him as he walks towards where she waits Credence to come back. She decides if he doesn’t interact, she won’t be the first one to say hello.

Newt continues to his worried pace and walks past by Tina, but he stops on his tracks when he recognizes the car. He turns on his spot and realizes who was he just walked past by. He didn’t recognize her again but it was because of the sunglasses this time.

“Hello,” he says, awkwardly smiling and looking over her shoulder. She returns it with a short nod and asks, “Looking for something?”

Newt smiles again and searches his pockets to as if he could find an answer there. Tina tilts her head a little waits for an answer with her arms folded on her chest.

Newt wets his lips and decides to say the truth even he hates it. “I- uh... I lost Dougal. He was with me when I answered my phone, then a second later he vanished. I’ve been looking for him for the last fifteen minutes.”

“Oh,” Tina says, she feels a little wave of shame go over her because of her judgment. She wasn’t expecting this as his answer.

“Can I help?” She asks, empathizing him because of Mauler, but after she sees the face he made, she loses her sympaty quickly after his answer.

“Ah, I- I Don’t think so, but I appreciate the offer,” Newt mutters and grimaces. Suddenly Tina’s phone rings, and he uses the opportunity to walk away without saying anything else.

Tina promptly doesn’t look after Newt as she opens her phone, hoping its Credence and he found his phone. To her relief, It’s him, “Hey Tina I found my phone, but I need you to come here immediately” His voice sounds tense.

Tina tenses too, “Why? Something happened?”

“Yes,” he answers and Tina sighs as she recognizes his dog voice. “ _I found the cutest dog ever!_ ” She sighs and pinches her nose, “Tina you should immediately come here and meet this _cloud named Dougal!_ ”

“ _Dougal?!_ Where are you?” She asks and looks around to find Newt.

“The bank we were sitting. I found him here looking around, I think he’s lost.”

“Yes he is.” Tina spots Newt and moves, “Don’t let him go away. I’m coming there with his owner,” she closes the phone to call after Newt.

“Mr.Scamander!” Tina yells and he turns back immediately. He sees her coming and he walks to her to meet at the half-way. He still looks around frantically as he goes to her.

“I found him!” Tina says and Newt feels a sudden urge to hug the woman. He starts to follow her as she explains, “I- Credence found him. I told him to hold him till we come there. Come on!”

“What? Where are they?! How are you sure it’s Dougal?” Newt asks between breaths.

“They are in the park. Credence forgot his phone on a bank and went back to get it. He just called me to come pet ‘this cloud named Dougal.’”

“Ah. Good thing he has his full name on his collar.” He smiles though still breathless.

Tina remembers their talk about their pets names but doesn’t say anything to don’t ruin the moment. She fastens her steps since he looks like he could run all the way instead of walking and before long they see a happy Credence rubbing the belly of a very happy Dougal.

When he sees his owner turning the corner though, Dougal immediately leaves Credence to run to Newt. He literally jumps on him, who was more than happy to be jumped on. Tina has to admit, it’s a really cute sight.

“Wait-,” a breathless Credence joins them after a second. “His owner is _him?_ ” He asks in a disbelieving voice.

Newt rises his head to see Credence, a young handsome man who was panting with his hands on his knees. Probably ran after Dougal. His outfit looked like hipsterish.

“Yep. Credence, meet Newt Scamander.” Tina looks down at him with her hands on the pockets of her long leather coat. Newt suddenly feels like being judged by her, so he ties Dougal’s walking collar and stands up. He thuds his hands and extends his hand to Credence.

“What she just said,” he says tilting his head to Tina's direction, causing her to roll her eyes behind her glasses. Credence takes his hand and smiles.

Dougal looks one to another and paws Credence for attention too, but Newt stops him by pulling his collar. “Now Dougal, I think you played enough for today. We better get going.” He turns to Credence and Tina, “Thank you so much to both of you. I was worried sick.” He smiles and makes eye contact for a split second.

Credence puts his hands on his pockets and smiles, “Well, he was very worried too. He was looking around for you when I found him. And aside from him, I’m very glad I met you Mr.Scamander.”

Newt feels his ears reddening because of what he actually meant, but he doesn’t know how to respond. Tina gets uncomfortable too and she immediately links her arm with Credence’s and walks away.

“Well, you met now. Let’s go, I’m freezing.” Credence tries to protest but she throws him a dirty look and shushes him. She barely even looks back at Newt as they walk away, “Have a nice day Mr.Scamander. I’m glad you found your dog.”

“Thanks, to you too.” Newt watches them walk for a couple seconds then turns to the opposite direction to go his way.

* * *

 

“Didn’t you two apologize from each other?” Credence asks as soon as they got in the car.

“Only because of Graves and the company. We just faked it.” Tina says and starts the car.

“Then why did you help him? How did you know it was his dog?” Credence asks.

“He told me about it because of Hagrid the last time. And, he had lost his dog Credence. I’m not a jerk.” She says without looking at him.

Credence hums and it makes Tina narrow her eyes at him. He decides to change the subject. “So, Jacob is his editor. When can I meet him?” He asks.

“Ah…” Tina bites her lip. “Tonight? They invited us to dinner tonight. I forgot to tell you.” She grimaces.

“What? You forgot?” Credence can’t believe it.

“I- I uh. Yeah, sorry. Queenie called me this morning when you were showering and I forgot to tell you after you suggested the park.”

Credence sighs and rolls his eyes. “Okay. But can we go back to the apartment first and change? I’m covered in Dougal.” He looks at his once black pants. 

Tina smiles without taking her eyes off the road, “Mauler will kill you.” She teases and bursts into laughter at his expression.

* * *

 

“Welcome Credence!” Queenie exclaims as she opens the door and immediately rushes to hug him. Tina smiles at the sight as she takes off her coat and scarf.

Jacob yells them welcome from the kitchen. The delicious smell tells Tina that he is occupied. “What’s on the menu?” She jokes and smells the air.

“Something you love but it’s not hot dogs,” Queenie says and giggles with Credence. Tina rolls her eyes at them.

“Seriously though.” Credence says, “The smell is amazing!”

Queenie nods as they follow her to the dining table, “Well, he is not Tina but- I say he’s pretty good!”

“Ha ha ha. Very funny.” Tina deadpans when even Jacob joins them this time. “It was just one time! I’m not that bad!”

“Honey, I can count how many different things you can cook without burning it. And- they’re not much.” Tina frowns at Queenie and grumbles.

“Dinner’s ready!” Jacob declares and a delicious smell fills the kitchen as he opens the door of the oven. Credence peaks at the source of the smell, “Wow. This really looks great.”

“Not as good as Tina’s but-”

“-Ah, just let me eat in peace would ya?!” Tina protests as she takes a seat but all of them laugh nonetheless.

“So Credence, Queenie said you’re in university. How’s school?” Jacob asks Credence to make conversation between them.

“Good,” Credence answers with a nod. “I’m on my winter break. I’ll go back next week,” he answers and holds his plate for him.

“Your major was acting right?” Jacob fills his plate with food. “I’m sure you are great!” He smiles and gives his now steaming plate back.

“Oh, he is!” Tina says and Credence smiles a little bit shyly. “Queenie and I have seen him act. He’s amazing,” she says glancing at him before cutting a bite from her food.

“Now, you’re not bad yourself, Tina.” Credence teases. “I almost thought you were really dating with Jack in the last season.” Credence grins and Tina chokes on her food.

She reaches for her water and speaks between coughs, “Why everybody keeps saying that?”

“Honey, the way you were looking at him... All doe-eyed… Either, you really have a crush on Wade and used the opportunity, or you can win an Oscar with that talent! ” Queenie jokes and Tina rolls her eyes.

“Seriously though. What are you gonna do in this season?” Jacob asks.

“Well... Brooks is pretty bad at relationships. So us didn’t work out,” She shrugs while making a face and everybody laughs. “So at the moment I’m not in the script,” she says.

“I’ve read it. You could squeeze yourself somewhere. You don’t have to play the waiter girl,” Queenie says and frowns. “Better before Jack dies though-”

“Wait- What?!” Credence cuts in. “You killed Jack?!”

Tina just leans back with a sigh. _Here we go again._ “Aah -Yes! I thought we got over this Credence.” She exclaims.

“Yes we did! You said you wouldn’t kill him!” Credence pleas.

“I said ‘I’ll THINK about it’. I didn’t promise anything,” Tina returns to her food and ignores him.

Queenie agrees with him, “I know how you feel Credence. She never takes us seriously when she wants murder.” She promptly turns her head away.

Tina is tired of this fight, “Well, how about you two stop liking them after I decide to kill them off?”

“That may include Credence, but I liked Greg from the start,” Queenie says and smiles when she sees Jacob’s confused but amused face. “You ever have any fights about ‘who to kill next’ with Newt?” She asks with her hand under her chin.

Jacob unintentionally glances at Tina first before answering, “Well, he only killed three people and five animals in the entire series. Two of the three were bad guys. So, no.”

“He doesn’t have enough people to kill,” Tina mutters while cutting her meat.

“Teen! I thought you two got over it.” Queenie protests.

“Come on, we only faked it and you know it,” Tina says flatly.

“You still helped him today.” Credence intervenes after swallowing his bite and Tina wants to kick him under the table.

Jacob turns to Tina with a confused face, “Help? What help?” He asks.

Before Tina can speak Credence starts to tell, “We went to the park today but on the way back I realized I forgot my phone at the bank we were sitting. I found his dog when I went back for my phone, then called Tina to come and pet this cloud named Dougal.” The whole table smiles at his tone except Tina.

“And I told her I think he was lost, and she told me yes he was. She said to me to hold him till she and his owner come, so I waited for them to come and take him. I had no idea Dougal was Newt’s.”

“How did you know it was his?” Queenie asks Tina. “Did he tell you or showed you a picture or somethin’?”

“We ran across Hagrid in the coffee shop that day. He told me his dog was like a cloud after Hagrid told him about how fluffy Mauler was.” Tina ignores Queenie’s look.

“ _Also_ , it’s really what’s written on his collar.” Credence switches to his dog voice again. “Sorry Tina but... Dougal is fluffier than Mauler.”

Queenie fakes a gasp, “Don’t let Mauler hear you!” She and Credence laugh at Tina’s expression.

“You two,” Tina points between them with her fork. “Stop messing with my cat!” Their laughter becomes louder at her protest and she joins them not long after.

* * *

 

“Who are you calling?” Queenie asks Jacob, who had ran back inside as they said goodnight to Tina and Credence. He now types on his phone with a huge grin on his face and it infects Queenie too.

“Newt.” He answers. “I need to hear what happened from his side,” he sits down on a chair, still grinning.

“Open on the speaker,” Queenie says and sits beside him, equally grinning. They put the phone on the table and start waiting. Newt answers it on the third ring.

“Jacob... Is everything alright?” Newt asks, he sounds a little sleepy.

“Oh, did I wake you up?” Jacob then realizes it was past midnight.

“Nothing bad happened just-” He looks at Queenie with a twinkle in his eye and Queenie beams at him. “Queenie and I had Tina and Credence over dinner tonight, and they told us they ran into you today. I wanted to ask how’s Dougal?” He asks and Queenie covers her mouth to hide laughter.

Newt stutters a little but tries to keep it cool. “He-He's good. He’s currently sleeping on the couch.” He knows what they are trying to make him say and he isn’t going to give them the satisfaction.

“Oh good,” Queenie says. “He must have fun with Credence giving him belly rubs.”

Newt grits his teeth but doesn’t make it show in his voice, “Yes yes. They quite liked each other I guess.”

“Hmm. I bet Tina wanted to pet him too but didn’t because of Mauler,” Queenie says and Jacob wishes he could see his face.

“Really?” Newt asks unimpressed. “She didn’t look like a dog person to me.” He tries to find any excuse to end this phone call. Maybe he can fake a battery dying?

“Oh believe me. She’s dying to pet them but Mauler sulks if she ever smells any animal on her except herself.” Oddly, Newt finds this funny but he doesn’t say it out loud.

“How did you lost Dougal anyway?” Jacob asks in a more serious voice.

 _Well, this conversation only gets better._ “Ah... Look- Dougal never leaves me when we are out, even when he is without a collar…” Newt tells them the truth, “But this time he saw a squirrel…”

“And he loves chasing them...” Jacob finishes.

“Yes. I looked for him like fifteen minutes in the park then decided to search outside because we were close to the gates.”

 _And now comes the best part_ , “And Miss Goldstein was waiting for Credence to come back apparently. We saw each other and I said I lost Dougal. I left her there when her phone ringed and almost a minute later she yelled at me saying she -pardon- Credence found him.”

“Good thing you had _A cloud named Dougal_ written on his collar. That made him easier to find him today.” Newt almost can see Queenie’s smile.

“Well yes. Good talk, and good night.” He says and hangs up after their goodnight’s and giggles.

Newt throws his phone back to his bedside table and rubs his eyes. He sighs and picks up the open book he was reading. He closes it and examines the symbols that adorn the books cover. He reads its name again, _Golden Hearts and Iron Fists, A novel by P. E. GOLDSTEIN._

When he got back home, he immediately dove into work to keep his mind off from the fact that the last person he would like to see actually helped him to find his dog. Plus to that, he looked like a fool in front of her.

So he wrote and draw. Hours and hours, to keep his mind busy. Then finally when he leaned back and decided to take a break, his eyes fell on a rather thick book on the bottom shelf of his bookshelf. Almost hidden away from his sight.

It was the first book she published. Her big hit that was bestseller for months. Praised by not only by the sci-fi lovers but also by the ‘big names’ of modern literature. She won two awards that year, -as his fourth edition copy told him-. The rest was history. Two other stand-alone novels and the first two books of a detective series set in the 1920s. Also screenwriting a TV show.

He remembers Bunty gave it to him on his birthday after he told her that he hasn’t read any of her books. He was at the fourth chapter when he fell asleep and Jacob woke him up with his call.

He tosses the book beside his phone and turns off the light again. He may try again in the morning but the women’s characters, -especially the protagonist- was _so_ bloody boring.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A tiny note on Credence's outfit looking hipster, I once saw a Youtuber talk about his clothes that way and I just can't get rid of this thought. He also got freed from Mary Lou some time ago, so he is a happy Credence in this one.
> 
> -CoG SPOILERY NOTE- I know how Credence and Jakweenie turned out in the second movie but they won't be like that in this. Because I like Jakweenie together, but in a normal and healthy way- NOT THE WAY QUEENIE DID.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soo, there is a new character in this chapter and I hope you guys like it. This chapter is rather short compare the other ones but its something. As always, don't be afraid to point out my mistakes or say your thoughts about it. I'll be delighted to read them.

After Credence leaves for university again, Tina takes Mauler to Hagrid for her usual check-up and shots. It takes her fifteen minutes to catch Mauler to put in her box because whenever the cat sees the box, she runs away and hides in most unexpected places but this time Tina manages to close the door of the room before she can escape.

After twenty minutes of listening Mauler’s moaning that translates to _I hate this box, and I hate being in a car_ , they arrive at their destination. And when Tina enters the clinic with Mauler’s box at one hand, she comes across a very unexpected scene.

Hagrid sits on his desk, crying his eyes out while a little blonde girl and Newt tries to comfort him by rubbing his back. Newt also holds a box of tissues for him. He wears the same blue coat Tina as the last time she realizes. After him her eyes briefly go to little girls outfit: funny glasses and an equally funny skirt. A black Sphynx cat walks between her legs. When Mauler sees the stranger cat, she loudly hisses at it, causing all three to turn their head to the newcomers.

“Ah… Hello,” Tina says awkwardly. “Hagrid are you okay?” She asks carefully and walks towards them while making Mauler face the opposite of the Sphynx. The little girl and her cat stares at her, but Newt only steals little glances. Hagrid doesn’t even move his head from his hands when he answers.

“NO! No no no-” He sobs violently, “Aragog- Aragog died…”

“Who?”

“Aragog. His pet tarantula,” Newt answers her without looking at her while Hagrid takes another tissue and cleans his nose loudly.

 _His pet what?_ Tina thinks but doesn’t voice her thought.

“He wasn’t as he used to be for the past days-” Hagrid sniffs between hiccups. “And this mornin’… He… He was gone…”

“Oh... I’m uh- I’m so sorry Hagrid,” Tina says gently and swaps Mauler to her other hand without moving from her spot. She awkwardly stays still, not knowing what to do.

“Thank you,” Hagrid hiccups. He takes a deep breath to study himself. “He’d be very pleased to know that…” Tina manages to not frown at him.

The little girl talks for the first time, “I was suggesting to bury him to the park just before you came in Miss. I think Aragog would like somewhere close to the lake. It’s a very peaceful place don’t you think?” She looks at Tina with silvery, protuberant eyes.

Hagrid looks at her with bloodshot eyes, “That’s very sweet of you Luna. Thank you.” The little girl smiles at him dreamly.

“I think my mom wouldn’t be upset if I accompany you at his funeral.” She says to him while picking up the bald black cat from the ground.

“Yeah. We- We should-,” Hagrid reaches to the shoe box on his desk. “We should bury him with a funeral,” he repeats under Tina’s perplexed look. She glances at Newt for help, but his eyes are on Hagrid.

Hagrid suddenly turns to Tina, “Would you like to come with us, Miss Goldstein? I know you came here for Mauler’s appointment but-”

Tina is frozen on her spot but Hagrid is clearly devastated, and she doesn’t have the heart to sadden him even more, “Don’t worry about it Hagrid. I’d love to come.”

The little girl smiles brightly at her answer, but Newt just eyed her behind his fringe. Tina suspects that he probably thought that she would refuse.

“Thanks,” Hagrid says, his voice is emotional, but he looks more pulled together when he weakly smiles at her. He stands up, “You can leave Mauler here with Quibbler. They can have a little playtime while we’re gone. My assistance will come in five minutes, he can look after ‘em.”

Before Tina could tell him that _Mauler doesn’t like stranger cats, that's why she hissed at that cat in the first place, YOU KNOW THAT HAGRID_ , Hagrid walks towards her and snatches the box from her hand. Before Tina or Newt can stop him, he puts the box to the ground and opens its door.

Quibbler immediately walks towards the box and lays down in front of it, watching Mauler from a safe distance. Mauler hisses at her but doesn’t move. Tina tries to go to close the door, but the sudden opening of the clinic's door stops her.

A young man dressed in black walks in, but doesn’t glance at them twice and while he passes by them. He sits on the empty chair Hagrid was sitting moments ago, and he only grunts when Hagrid tells the him that they were going to bury Aragog so he needed to look after the cats.

Tina looks at Newt for help but he just shrugs and mouths _it’s okay._ He walks with Tina out of the clinic after Hagrid and Luna. They walk to the park with Hagrid leading them. A shoe box that contains a dead spiders body in his hands. 

* * *

 

As they walk after Hagrid, Tina thinks her walks in Central Park will never be the same again.

Hagrid is still crying but is silent now. Tears still coming down from his eyes but there are no more hiccups. Luna holds him on the elbow while Tina and Newt follow them a step behind. Tina occasionally glances at Newt, but he only looks at Hagrid’s shoulder.

“Here,” Luna says and points at a massive and old willow tree. Tina remembers this tree, and suddenly happy memories from her childhood flood to her mind. Her mother used to bring her and Queenie play this park when they were little. She and her would play under that great willow.

They stop and Tina wakes up from her memories.

Hagrid gets down on his knees and starts to dig a tiny grave for Aragog. Newt and Tina watch while Luna holds the coffin in her hands. She gets down beside Hagrid when he finishes digging and puts the box next to the hole. They rise together.

“Do you want me to say something?” Luna asks Hagrid.

“That would be very sweet of you,” Hagrid sniffs.

Little girl folds her hands in front of her, “Dear Aragog, I may not know you like Hagrid did, but I’m sure you were a magnificent creature and a friend. I hope you are in a peaceful place.”

Three adults look at the little girl. Hagrid sniffs again, “Thank you, Luna. It was beautiful.” He says and starts to his own, which almost takes solid twenty minutes. Tina had no idea a spider was capable of this range of emotion.

When Newt speaks, his saying are too zoologist for Tina to understand, and it makes her feel even more out of place. So when it’s her turn, she says to Hagrid that she didn’t know Aragog enough to say something. He nods and says it was enough for her to come.

He once again gets on his knees, gently picks up the huge dead tarantula and puts him in his tiny grave. _If I saw a spider like him in my apartment, I would leave the place in three seconds,_  Tina thinks.

He and Luna bury the spider together as Newt and Tina silently watches them. They stand up in usion. Luna holds Hagrid’s hand turns him over and they start to walk back to the clinic.

* * *

 

Tina drives back to her apartment in some traffic much to both her and Maulers annoyance. It also gives time to her brain to replay the funeral but mostly her conversation with Newt after the funeral.

When they came back to clinic Hagrid was still a giant mess, so Newt offered to examine and give Mauler's shots himself, and Tina agreed. It took her awhile to stop Mauler going after Quibbler. Tina was shocked when she saw that her unfriendly cat was whining after another cat for it to stay.

But Luna’s mother came - a woman with same hair and personality as her daughter- and they left after she gave her condolences to Hagrid too. Tina had to hold Mauler tightly on her chest to keep her running after them.

After they left, Newt put on medical gloves and Tina stood on the other side of the examination table to help him by keeping Mauler calm. While she did play with another cat today instead of fighting, she still didn’t like strangers touch. Especially men’s. Tina was guessing she had bad memories caused by them.

Newt broke the silence between them without taking his eyes off from Mauler, “I started to read _Golden Hearts and Iron Fists_ the other day.”

That caught her off guard. He was reading her book. _What? Why?_

She couldn’t help but thought that he was going to imply how bad she writes again. So she wanted to beat him to it, “Didn’t you think it was too depressing? I don’t think my metaphors helped.”

He was probably expecting for her to talk back like this because he didn’t take offense. “Actually, I was going to say that I may have misjudged your books.” He said before turning his back to take a syringe to fill the first shot.

That surprised Tina, “Really? Are you enjoyin’ it?” She asked, still couldn’t believe it.

“Yes. More than I want to admit actually. Though, I also must admit that it was pretty boring in the first five chapters.” He turned with the filled syringe and smirked when he saw her expression. “It went better after the sixth.”

Tina wanted to snap back something, but her curiosity got better of her. “Why? What happened in the sixth that you liked?” An amusing idea came to her mind, “Is it because of the lion?”

“While it has a part in it, no,” he smiled and pointed to Mauler for her to hold her still. “It’s because I think the first time we see Kurt actually shows a bit part of his personality. He… He realizes, that he isn’t alone. There are people he can trust.”

Tina eyed him for a second and waited to syringe to become empty before speaking, “Well, I’m glad you liked it. Have you finished it?”

“No. Not yet, but I only have 50 pages left. It’s pretty hard to hold myself from asking you what will happen to be honest.” His smile was genuine.

Tina laughed at that, “Well, if you didn’t get attached to the some of the characters too much, I think you’ll be okay.” She joked remembering Queenie and Credence, but Newt’s face dropped suddenly much to her confusion.

“Someone will die?”

 _Oh no. I can’t deal with another one._ She gulped and didn’t look at him, “Ah... Yep. Not to give any spoilers but- _Someones_ will die actually.”

“Then I’m not finishing it.” He said seriously.

“What?” Tina laughed a little nervous. “Are you serious?”

“Very.” He said and put rose his chin up while filling another syringe.

Tina laughed again. Biting her lip and remembering the dinner at Queenie and Jacob. “How about this?” She asked, and he raised an eyebrow. “Say me your favorites, I will tell if they die or not, but not which one. So you can continue if they live, or stop reading it there.”

Newt considered for a moment, but he accepted her offer, “Alright. Kurt, Jason, and Olive.”

“All of them will live.” She answered.

Newt lets out a sigh. “Good. I’ll continue when I go back home then.” This made Tina huff a laugh, and him smile at her before giving Mauler her second and last shot for today.

Now she replays the events in her head, Tina thinks this was the weirdest vet appointment she had ever been to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Luna's cat is a Sphynx because the dark ones reminds me of Thestrals. Also considering her open-minded and kind nature I thought this would be a good match.


	7. Lakehouse Part One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's been some time but... Here is a new chapter! Hope you guys like it!

Loud plate sounds and laughter wake Tina up form her sleep with a jump. She sighs loudly and turns over in her bed. She stares to the ceiling without focus and tries to remember where she is. She thinks the woods looks familiar, but she still can’t exactly pint point where.

“Queenie honey! Which bag is the syrup in? I can’t find it.” _Jacob?_

“It’s in the small one that probably in one of the biggers.” _Queenie!_

With her sister's voice, Tina’s senses are wide awake and she realizes where she is: in her parents’ old lake house. She’s been here for almost two weeks now, but this was her last day.

_Her last day._

Tina swears when she remembers why today was her last and glances at the clock while slipping into a pair of sweats. She hastily looks for her phone around her bedroom to text Jacob that, _what were they doing here so early?!_

Except she can’t find it, which means it’s probably somewhere downstairs. Possibly between the sofas cushions since she watched a movie on it last night. She slowly opens her bedroom door to listen to what they were talking. Her heart still beating wildly because of the sudden panic.

“When are we going to wake Tina up?” She hears Jacob. “If she isn’t already. I mean we aren’t exactly quiet.”

“The waffles are almost ready, we can wake her after we set the table to surprise her.” Queenie giggles. “And frankly, she denies it every time, but she is at the heavier sleeper I ever met.”

With slight irritation, Tina opens the door fully and walks to the wooden stairs. Though, the waves of a delicious smell calms her down when she reaches half-way. “To surprise someone whos sleeping Queenie,” Tina starts while looking down at them to the open kitchen. “You should be quiet, so they don’t wake up!”

Tina frowns and folds her arms to look intimidating, but Queenie only gives her a cheeky grin since her older sister looks nothing like that in her zebra pajamas, “Honey, it’s been more than half an hour since we came here and you haven’t woke up even when Mauler literally yelled at Jacob and Newt when she saw them.”

“Jacob and _who?_...” Tina freezes on the last step and looks at Jacob. He smiles at her, but Tina can see the meaning behind it.

Queenie scolds Tina over her shoulder, “You stayed up late last night didn’t you? You sleep like dead when you go to bed past one a.m.”

Tina mumbles something to Queenie and leans down to Jacob, “What are you doing here so early?! We agreed you two would be coming at afternoon!”

Jacob frowns at her. “Plan’s got changed. I texted you last night, didn’t you read them?”

No, Tina _did not_ read them. She hastily walks past him to the large sofa and two smaller ones surrounding a coffee table, which was a mess with blankets and pillows on them. She mutters as she goes through them, looking under the blankets and novels, immersing her hands between cushions. She even checks under a disgruntled Mauler who sits and watches all the humans around her without interacting any of them. Tina sighs and turns on her spot and to her irritation, she sees it on the coffee table, laying beside the TV remote…

She takes the phone and pushes the menu button and sees why she never heard any notifications whatsoever; the phone was dead. Tina ignores Mauler’s pleas for attention and walks towards the TV where her charger lays on the floor beside it. She quickly plugs it to the charger and waits for it to open while crossing her legs. Mauler tries to get between her and her phone while Queenie teases her for her urgency.

“Yeah yeah, my followers must be devastated...” Tina mumbles and hisses with frustration as when her phone opens painfully slow. She blindly tries to pull Mauler off of her, but a newcomer’s _good morning_ makes her freeze.

Newt Scamander is on the porch, untying his boots and holding an old leather suitcase and a small bag in other hand. The image suddenly feels so absurd that Tina only realizes her phone’s opened when Mauler tries to paw it out of Tina’s hand, “Hey! You behave Mauler.”

Tina enters the pin, and the phone starts to vibrate non-stop to notify her of the ten unread messages from Jacob. She immediately goes to her mailbox, but her eyes constantly jump between her phone and the man with the leather suitcase, who now closes the glass door behind him. He takes a look around the place and gives her a small smile when their eyes meet briefly.

A silent _hi_ falls out her mouth before she starts to read the messages Jacob had send to her last night.

**-MISSION ABORT!**

**-MISSION ABORT!**

**-I just found out Newt is coming with us. Queenie said she wanted to have ‘more target to throw snowballs at.’**

**-So she invited him too.**

**-She said he refused at first, but agreed later when she told about the wildlife around the house. You know him enough, he jumped at the idea.**

**-I thought maybe we could turn this back to our plan, but Queenie is SOOO excited to have fun as a group so don’t mention it to her ok? Or to Newt on that matter. I don’t want him to think he destroyed our plan.**

**-Tina?**

**-Tina are you there? Have you read any of this?**

**-I would call you, but Queenie just came out of the shower.**

**-Also, Queenie plans to come early to surprise you with breakfast. We are heading out at 5:30. See you in the morning.**

Tina glances at Newt again briefly then her eyes find Jacob’s with a disappointed expression on her face. Jacob gives her an apologetic smile. Queenie doesn’t see this exchange, but Newt does.

“Waffles are ready!” Queenie announces with a cheerful voice and calls them all to gather around the now ready table.

Newt and Jacob take their seats, and Tina leaves her phone to charge. She picks up Mauler with her and walks to the kitchen, “Let me feed Mauler first though, or she’ll be yelling at us for food through the whole breakfast.”

“Oh! I already took care of it,” Queenie says as she holds a plate with tiny pieces of waffles and cat food on the side. Mauler meows to the sight and leans on the plate to smell, and Tina feels her mood light up even if her big plan for her sister has crushed.

* * *

Jacob and Queenie sit side by side on the sofa, watching a cheap version of _Beauty and the Beast_ on the TV while Tina writes on her laptop and Newt reads an old _National Geographic_ magazine he found on the bookshelf. All of them on separate sofas and their separate worlds. Mauler was nowhere to be found.

Since yesterday morning, Newt has fallen back to his shell much to Queenie’s dismay. He was just becoming more open with them, and since he and Tina were on good terms now, Queenie thought that inviting him too was a great idea, but she was no longer sure about it. He looked excited on the road yesterday, but now he was just reading stuff without talking to anybody.

At first, Queenie thought maybe because he was tired, but that wasn’t a persuasive enough reason. Other than that, she had no idea what was bothering him, but she was determined to make him have fun. Not just him alone, _all_ four of them together. So, she offers why they weren’t going out for a walk in the woods.

“A walk in the woods?” Tina’s head immediately snaps up from her laptop. She turns her head back and sees the slowly falling snow through the wall length windows. “But it’s snowing.”

“So? It’s not too bad,” Queenie says. “Also it’s not like you don’t go to walks in the forest when it snows.”

“Yes I do, but not when I hear wolves howling the night before,” Tina says and that draws Newt’s attention.

“Wolves? Have you seen them? Were they close to the house?”

Tina carefully examines Newt’s face but can’t decide if he’s excited or frightened.

* * *

  _So, he was excited._ Tina thinks as she carefully hops down from the icy rock.

They are walking on Tina’s usual hiking way. It’s wide enough for them to walk without having to duck under branchs and watch out for the thick roots of the trees. Tina leads the way, Queenie and Jacob follows her close behind while Newt walks after them. He is still silent, but looks around him in wonder. Since the snow slowed and only tiny snowflakes falls here and there, and it makes Newt feel like he just discovered _Narnia._

“Wow!” Queenie breathes and looks back to the way they came. Their mixed footprints between tall trees remind her the first winter she remembers here. She speeds up and catches up to her sister. “I don’t remember we ever came this far from the house Teen.”

“Well _I did_ , you didn’t,” Tina says over her shoulder. “You always insisted we don’t go further than the end of the lake. Even in the summer.”

“But we were just kids by then, and I was afraid of the forest…Plus, unlike you,” Queenie speeds up and walks side by side Tina. “I didn’t want to scare ma and pa to death just because I saw a fox and followed it to its nest.”

“A _baby_ fox, which was adorable and it totally worthed all the walk when I saw its siblings.”

“Their mother allowed you to do that?” Newt asks, surprised.

“I didn’t get too close, only watched them a little while behind a tree. Then a bird somewhere behind me made a sound like a whistle, and the cubs went back to their nest.”

“The bird must’ve warned them about you,” Newt says without sparing a glance but Tina roots on the spot, frowning.

“Why would it? I wasn’t going to hurt them. I never even got close to them.”

“But still, you were a stranger and on the top of that, a human. Which most animals tend to stay away from, for valid reasons.” Newt passes by Tina, and she stares after him with her arms folded. Queenie and Jacob look at each other with a slight concern.

“Are you still not over it?” Tina asks, and Newt huffs as he continues to walk. Tina follows him while throwing her hands in the air in frustration, “I have never shot an animal in my life, and I certainly don’t intend to do it today. How many times I have to repeat it, I only carry it as a last resort.”

“It doesn’t make me feel any better that you can still think of it as an option, even if it’s the ‘last’ one.”

“Okay, Newt that’s enough buddy.” Jacob almost runs to his friend and puts a hand on his shoulder to prevent him from saying anything else. Queenie does the same for Tina, but Tina wouldn’t let him get away with saying the last thing.

“I do wonder, Mr.Scamander.” Tina ignores her sister’s grip on her arm. “Have you ever been attacked by an animal? Or none of your guides carried a gun with them when you were in the wild?”

“They _did_ carry guns, but unlike you, they were _trained professionals_ , not a woman who's into guns. And their bullets were narcosis needles -not real bullets.”

A chill goes down Tina’s spine, but it has nothing with the cold. His words ring in her head, _a woman who’s into guns._ Her jaw tightens before she speaks in an emotionless voice, “Queenie Jacob, you guys must be tired. Why don’t you turn back from here? Mr.Scamander and I can go a little further before turning back.”

Queenie frowns at her sister suggestion, “ _What?_ Uh- I’m not sure about-”

“I think it’s a splendid idea,” Newt says with a tone equal to Tina’s. Jacob looks at his friend in bewilderment. Newt, who always tries to avoid any fights -verbal or physical, now doesn’t take a step back and instead lets his stubbornness take over. Jacob never saw him like this before and it kind of freaks him out.

“Great. Let’s go then.” Tina walks past Jacob and Newt follows her. Queenie and Jacob look at each other again and mouths silent words. While they want to stop them, they also don’t want to be left in middle of the crossfire. So they turn around and start to walk their way back to the house.

Newt and Tina continue to walk without saying anything. Newt sometimes steals glances at her while plotting the next sarcastic thing to say in his mind, but Tina beats him to it when she is sure they are out of earshot from Queenie and Jacob.

She stops, causing him to turn on his spot to look at her, “What is wrong with you?” Her voice is cold with anger, “We were just starting to get along, and since yesterday morning you are even worse than the time we met.”

“Funny, I was just gonna say the same thing for you.” Newt straightens up to look down on her.

“What?! What did I do? You are the one who’s acting like a jerk since yesterday.”

“Well, maybe it’s because you aren’t such a great host.”

“Wha- I didn’t even know you were coming! It was supposed to be just Jacob and Queenie!”

“Oh, _I know._ You made it perfectly clear yesterday morning. Your shared look with Jacob said it all.”Tina frowns at him but he continues, “It was Queenie who invited me. If you two didn’t want me to come, you should’ve said it to Queenie and not made me go through a three hour way just to come somewhere I’m not wanted.”

Tina gapes at him in shock, because he got it totally wrong. “Mr.Scamander that had nothi-”

“ _Shhh._ ” Newt cuts her, putting a finger on his mouth for a second before jolting his left suddenly. Tina only gawks after him.

“Where are you going?! Scamander!”

He shushes her again but motions his hand for her to follow. Tina kicks the ground in anger but follows him. Without realizing, her hand immediately goes to her gun on her thigh on instinct. Newt is surprisingly fast in snow, and it takes her some effort to catch up, but he suddenly stops beside a tree.

“What are you-” Tina starts and Newt brings his finger up again, but Tina has enough of it, “ Don’t you even-”

“Look,” Newt says flatly and points, Tina turns her head to its direction and can’t believe herself that she needed him to point it out for her to finally see it.

A wolf, a black wolf, trapped from its right front paw, looks at them with yellow eyes, growling. Tina is no expert in animal behavior, but she understands the meaning clearly. _Stay away from me._

And naturally, what he does?

“We need to free her,” he slowly gets low to the ground and walks closer to get a better look at wolf’s leg, it immediately starts to growl louder and snaps at him. Newt takes a step back but doesn’t rise from the ground. “You wouldn’t have a catch pole back in the house, right?”

Tina makes a face, but he doesn’t see it since his eyes are only on the wolf. “ _No,_ ” she answers unamused. She sighs and looks over the wolf and the trap. It reminds her of a case she worked on years ago. A hunter was murdered, and she was investigating his house with her coworkers. She remembers the man’s gear room. Full of shotguns, cages, knives, traps…

Traps, just like this one. Which could’ve tore apart Abernathy’s hand if he hadn’t been quick enough to draw out his hand. Tina remembers how Grimmson bragged about hunting while setting up the same trap again.

An idea comes to her mind when she sees the hinge of the trap. “Move over.”

“Why?” Newt asks, and he can’t believe in his eyes when he turns his head to see Tina pulling her gun out. “What are you doing?! Have you lost your mind?”

“No, I didn’t lose my mind,” she tilts her head for him to move while aiming her gun. Yet, Newt still looks at her like she has gone mad and he jumps between her and the wolf. He holds out his arms and stares right into her eyes.

“I’m not going to let you kill her,” he says seriously, and Tina’s jaw tightens again.

“ _Good_ because I’m not going to kill her,” she says, making a great effort to keep her voice cool. “I’m aiming to the trap. Like I said multiple times already, I have no intention to shoot anything alive.” Newt opens his mouth, but Tina doesn’t let him talk, “And, _I’m not_ a woman who’s just into guns, I was a detective before becoming a writer. _And,_ I was one of the best at shooting.”

Newt stares at her, dumbfounded. _Well, I did not see this coming_. He clears his throat, “I... didn’t know that.”

“Because I didn’t tell you. _Now_ , if you could move over.”

Newt slowly nods and does as she says, but stops her again before she could aim properly, “Are you sure you can shoot the trap and not her foot?”

 _I was the top of my class._ “Yes,” Tina answers patiently, and he nods without looking at her. Tina takes a breath and aims, then fires once.

The gun is loud, and with the bullet meeting with iron, is even worse. Newt flinches, and the wolf screams with fear. She tries to run away from them on instinct, and it baffles when she _can_. The wolf stops after a couple of steps and looks back at them from some distance. She holds her trapped paw on the air, but there is no blood coming out.

Newt tries so hard to not show his teeth when he smiles at the wolf. She tilts her head while looking between him and Tina. It doesn’t growl or show her teeth anymore; simply watches them.

“Newt…” Tina whispers and the wolf’s attention turns to her. Tina can’t help but stare into the magnificent yellow eyes. Without knowing, she holds her gun tighter. She probably shouldn't make eye contact -to not appear aggressive, but she is utterly captivated by them.

The wolf suddenly bows her head, nose is just above the snow, but eyes are still on them. After staying like that for a moment and she turns and leaves without sparing another glance at them. Tina can’t help but think the wolf had thanked them by not running away immediately. As crazy as it sounds, she likes the idea of it.

Slowly, both Newt and Tina turn their heads and look at each other. Tina almost whispers when she asks, “Do you think it’ll be okay?”

Newt blinks before looking at the pawprints before turning back to her, “It was a she, so probably isn’t a lone wolf and she didn’t have an open wound. If she finds her pack, they can look after her.”

“Good. I wouldn’t want her to die alone in pain.”

Newt thinks for a moment before shrugging, “We can follow her pawprints if you want to make sure.” He grins at her suddenly horrified face. “I’m just kidding. We did what we could.”

Tina nods, “Yeah… Yeah, we did.” She puts her gun back to its place and turns on her spot. She walks past Newt but stops when she remembers what they were doing before finding the wolf. “Look-”

“It’s ok. I… I don’t want to make you uncomfortable. I’m sure I can find a transport to take me to New York.”

Tina gawks at him again. For a second, she really wants to slap him because he _insists_ to not listen. She blocks his way and he stops, but he doesn’t make eye contact. “Jacob told me to keep it a secret not to upset you, but since not knowing upsets you…”

Newt looks at her baffled, and she bites her lip and shakes her head before speaking again, “We _weren’t_ disappointed because of _you_ , we were disappointed because Queenie unintentionally ruined her own surprise…” Newt continues to look confused but doesn’t say anything.

“I don’t know if he told you, but Jacob was planning to propose Queenie. But he was eating himself because he didn’t know how.”

Newt exactly knew how was it; _I want it to be romantic but not cliche… Not too big but big enough to show her how much she means to me… What if she doesn’t like that and thinks this is bad..._ and yadda yadda… Though he had no idea she was going through it too.

“Anyways, on thursday I got an idea. I offered him to take Queenie and come here for a weekend escapade. Then before they arrive, I’ll ready the atmosphere and leave, so Jacob could surprise her and finally propose her. But since she didn’t know about our plan…”

“She thought it as normal vacation, so she invited me too.” Newt finishes.

“Yeah,” Tina takes a deep breath of relief. _Finally, you get it._ Newt silently nods, and they start to walk again in unison. “Our decision with Jacob was pretty much on impulse, he may have forgotten to tell you…”

“Oh no, he didn’t. But Queenie was faster than him, so when he called me Queenie had already invited me.”

“Hmhm. Jacob said she wanted to have more targets for a snowball fight.” Tina smirks at Newt’s expression, an easy silence falls between them. Only their breaths and creaking snow under their feet. Snow slightly fastens once more.

Newt thinks as they walk. “We can do it though.”

“Do what?” Tina frowns. “Snowball fight?”

“No, no. The… the romantic dinner surprise. We can still do it.” She narrows her eyes but listens. “I mean, we need to get them out of the house for some time but- We can do it. Plus, this way it would be a surprise for Jacob too.”

Tina considers this and, _he is right_. “Okay.” Newt smiles at her answer. “We must find an excuse to get them out of the house though. Any ideas?”

Newt tells the first idea came to his mind, “Mauler got poisoned and in need of meds.”

“What… Why my cat gets _poisoned_?”

“Not for real! I’ll just say some medical stuff and send them to buy medicine for her.”

He looks at Tina expectedly, but she just shakes her head at the idea. Though, a smirk finds its way on her lips short after, “Let’s brainstorm on this a little more okay? I’m sure we can come up with something more believable than that, Mr.Scamander.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At first I was gonna post the whole lakehouse thing in one chapter, then I thought seperating them would be easier to read. I'm working on the part two at the moment and I hope it doesn't take as much as this one.


	8. Lakehouse Part Two

“ _So_ I take it you two get along much better now, huh?”

Tina freezes with one arm in her coat when she hears the tone in her sister's voice, a bit too teasing for her liking. “Well… We talked things out-but don’t think anything else about it.”

Queenie puts her hands up. “Wouldn’t dream of it, Detective Goldstein. Just whatever you said to him got him out of his shell. I’m just curious is all.”

“We uh… we had a little misunderstanding-but it’s all good now.” Tina zips her coat and puts her hat on. “We won’t go too far, we’ll just circle the lake.”

Queenie calls after Tina before she could close the door. “Ok. Try not to find any wolves this time!”

“Ha ha.” Tina narrows her eyes to Queenie from the outside of the window but the blonde only waves to her while leaning on the counter.

Newt turns to Tina when she comes to his side and they start to walk without rush. He starts the conversation when they are far enough from the house.“Hope you find anything, because I thought about it for an hour before going to sleep last night, yet I still have nothing.”

“You tell me! We should be the most imaginative people we know, but I still can’t think of a plan that makes any sense.”

“I even google-ed it, but I don’t think setting the house on fire is a good idea. Neither is saying there’s a gas leak.” Newt grimaces.

“You… You actually google-ed it?” Tina says with a look.

“We are desperate here,” Newt defends.

Tina agrees with him with a sigh, and they continue to their walk. Their path is a line between the trees and the lake. Forest starts on their right and the frozen lake spreads as far as they can see on their left. In summer, the lake reminds Tina jewels with its ever-changing colors but in winter, its as white as porcelain. It looks isolated, and unlike most people Tina likes it better this way. In the silence she can almost hear every little snowflake that the wind blows away, or the distant sounds she has no idea what is making them. Newt suddenly stops, and Tina realizes it two steps later because of her thoughts.

“How good are you with electrics?” he asks seriously.

Tina looks at him, dumbfounded. “We are not setting the house on fire.”

Newt rolls his eyes and sighs. “I didn’t say anything about a fire. I just asked if you’re good with electrics. Can you disconnect somethings and make it like a fuse failure?”

“ _Oh…_ ” Tina says, now getting what he meant. “I, well… I think I can switch off something.”

“I was thinking of something more destructive… something we can send Jacob and Queenie to buy so they won’t come back for a while.”

Tina bites her lip as she thinks. “I think I can handle it… but what if they decide to call somebody instead?”

“You’re right,” Newt says. They continue to walk, and another problem comes to his mind, “Um… By the way, do you think Jacob got the ring with him?”

“Yeah, he has it. I asked him if he found an idea and he said he had none, but he keeps the ring with him if he gets a sudden inspiration.”

Newt nods and looks at his feet. He listens the snows creak under their feet. He stops again.

Tina stops too. “Did you find something?”

Newt puts on a smug face and Tina can’t help but smirk at its ridiculousness. “What is the thing both Jacob and Queenie loves?” He asks.

Tina thinks for three seconds. “Cooking.”

“ _Exactly._ We will come up with something that needs ingredients and send them to shopping.”

“ _And_ the closest one is more than a half an hour away. Snow will slow them even more, and if I know Queenie, she’ll spend a minimum an hour in there. If they see some old friend of hers make it two.”

“We’ll have enough time then.”

“Yes! I can’t believe it took us this long to find this.” Tina exclaims.

“You’re telling me! And we were arguing about which one of us was better…”

For a split second Newt freezes, but when Tina laughs, the tension leaves his body. She thinks maybe he thought she would get it wrong, and it shows her that he probably still expects her to suddenly get angry at the mention of it. An idea comes to her mind to break the ice. “Hey um… I know I said we would only walk around the lake but...if you are willing to walk, I know a place that has an amazing view no matter the season. It’s my favorite place around here. Would you want to go?”

For a moment Newt looks at her in disbelief, but he smiles and nods. He tells her to lead the way and they start to go deeper in the forest.

* * *

 

“Newt, I’m telling you for the last time,” Tina says, her voice almost as cold as the weather, “ _Maleficent_ is the best Disney villain ever.”

“Cruella wanted a _puppy fur coat_!”

“Maleficent cursed a baby _because she wasn’t invited to a party!_ ”

“I don’t remember her wanting to wear Aurora as a _coat!”_

“Newt you don’t-”

“You can’t change my mind!”

“I could if you’d just listen!”

“Really?” Newt mocks with her. “What are you gonna do if won’t? Arrest me?”

“Good idea, _yes_.” Tina says simply, and when Newt turns around in confusion, a snowball hits him square in the face.

“What the-” He stumbles back losing his balance. A second snowball hits him on the arm before he could cover himself, but the third misses him by an inch when he finally manages to hide behind a tree.

“Are you serious?!” He asks and runs away from Tina, who is after him with a new snowball in the making. He grabs some snow from the ground to make his own while running. “You asked for this!” Newt yells and turns to throw his snowball. Tina ducks right on time and hers hit Newt on the back when he turns to escape.

“No!” she yells back as she tries to grab some snow from the ground. “You asked for this! I told you you’d face consequences!”

She throws another snowball at him but misses by an inch. It crashes right on the tree beside his head and he breaks into a run to get ahead of her before she could attack again.

“Oh yeah?” Newt catches a glimpse of her and manages to hit her by the shoulder this time. She lets out a girly shriek that turns into a laugh and disappears behind the trees again before calling out about how terrible his aim is.

Newt scoffs. “It’s hard catching you when you disappear so much!” He grumbles to himself and looks behind his shoulder as he squeezes another snowball in his hands. He stands up and runs while looking around to find Tina, but another snowball hits him on his thigh that he saw it coming, yet to slow to save himself. He searches the forest, and he spots her with her hand on a tree and aims for a millisecond before throwing his snowball at her. He hits her on the neck this time, and she lets out a shriek when the snow that sweeps under her layers.

“How is my aim now!” He laughs and Tina promises revenge but joins his laughter. Newt runs the opposite way of her voice and fastens to get ahead of her, but when the house comes to view he slows down. He stops to take a breath and sees Tina is actually ahead of him. He fastens his pace to throw the final snowball before Tina enters the house. Tina walks to the house with her back turned on him. She looks behind her but doesn’t see him. _The opportunity._

He squeezes his snowball even tighter and runs to catch her off guard, but suddenly the ground disappears, and he gasps when he finds himself deep in the snow, almost to his chest. Tina to turn her head to the correct direction, and she starts to laugh so hard that she needs to hold on to the railing to not fall herself too.

She walks over to him to help him out, but she still can’t control herself much to his annoyance. She takes off her gloves on the way and opens her coats pocket zip to find her phone.

“ _No,_ ” Newt points his finger sternly, but Tina doesn’t listen to him as she takes his photos while smiling from ear to ear.

“Oh yes. Definitely yes.” She gets on one knee to get a different angle without realizing the ice under her foot. She slips while getting up and since she can’t hold on to the air, falls right in front of Newt with a gasp.

Newt’s hands go to soften her fall with no success. “Are you hurt?!”

“No no, I’m fine. I fell on the snow,” she says, laying on the ground with her eyes on the sky. She turns her head to look at him, they stare into each other's eyes for a moment, and they start to laugh at the same time.

“Say snow,” she says and rises her hand that still holds the phone. She opens the front camera and takes selfies of them smiling. She sees him gather a handful of snow on her screen, but is too slow to stop him when he pours it down on her face, especially into her coat. She yelps.

“Hey! Stop! You want me to save you or not?!” She exclaims as she gets on her knees but still grinning. She sighs loudly and slips her phone back into her pocket before getting up fully to help Newt out, mindful of the ice this time.

“Okay,” she says, holding Newt under his armpits to pull him upwards. Newt tries to help by pushing himself with his hands and grumply asks the question of the day, “Why there is a pit this deep in your garden?”

“Dad dug that hole to plant a tree there before he died. I don’t know how, but it got deeper and deeper through the years.” She takes a deep breath and pulls him with a force that Newt had no idea she possessed.

“Wow... you’re stronger than you look.” Tina smirks to herself as he thanks her before getting the rest of himself out.

“You’re welcome,” she says as she shakes the snow off of her. Newt looks like a half snowman when he gets on his feet. Tina chuckles to herself, “Queenie probably will kill us when she sees she missed a snowball fight.”

“ _Who says I missed a snowball fight?!_ ” A voice yells a second before a snowball hits Tina on her back, causing her to yelp. Queenie squeezes another ball in her hands as Tina gets into action.

“THIS MEANS WAR!” The older sister declares and ducks to escape from Queenie’s second snowball.

Jacob joins Queenie too, and his snowball finds Newt as he yells, “EDITORS VERSUS WRITERS!”

“COME ON NEWT!” Tina calls and her snowball catches Queenie when she is too slow to hide. Newt joins the fight with a shot aimed to Queenie that hits her by the leg. Newt catches up to Tina as he ducks under the two snowballs flying over his head. They don’t go back inside until they wear themselves out.

* * *

Newt inhales deeply as his eyes open. He closes them back and tries to go back to sleep, but his aching spine and legs don’t let him do so. So he sighs again and watches his surroundings while trying to wake himself.

The room looks gloomy, like everything is somehow recoloured as gray. Even the claret red couches and the pictures hang on the walls looks like they’ve been replaced. The stuffed bookshelves surrounding the tv reminds him a dragon’s cave.

He slowly sits and grimaces because of the pain. The curtains are open, but the light isn’t enough to lighten the house other than the kitchenette. He closes his eyes for a second and lets his chin fall on his chest. He sees the reason of his back pain when he opens his eyes. His blanket lies under his feet.

Looks like he and Tina went a bit too far on the movies last night. The coffee table is filled with dvds and the empty shacks of the snacks they ate. Some mugs, and a note. _A note?_

With slightly less aching muscles now, Newt reaches for the white paper with the words, _Read Me_ written on it. He opens the folded paper and reads Queenie’s note she left for him and Tina.

**Good morning guys! Hope you two woke up before noon (even though I don’t believe you will).**

**Jacob and I thought it would be great to use that old oven to cook some nice dinner! We went shopping. If you guys want anything, give us a call!**

**See ya later!**

Newt stares at the note in disbelief. _Did those two literally_ —it didn’t matter. They’re already gone.

Newt gets up to wake up Tina, who sleeps on the other couch with a puffy blanket around her and Mauler beside her. For a second Newt doesn’t want to disturb her, her features are peaceful, but they need to get moving quickly.

“Tina. Tina!” He reaches to shake her by the shoulder, but Mauler suddenly stands up and hisses at him. Newt withdraws and Tina wakes up with a gasp.

“What the- _Mauler!_ ” Tina catches the cat and pulls her close to her chest. The feline doesn’t take his eyes off of Newt from her owner’s arms.

“Yep, she doesn't like men,” Newt says, ducking his head to show he means no harm.

“Yes, but this time it’s because you scared her.” Tina gently caresses Mauler’s head and neck, planting kisses to her soft fur. “There you go girl, he is a friend. He meant no harm.”

Newt doesn’t say anything as he watches the scene in front of him. He feels shame just for even thinking she could ever kill an animal for fun. Seeing her deep bond with Mauler reminds him how she got her in the first place. No wonder the cat was so protective over her human.

He clears his throat to take Tina’s attention, “Queenie and Jacob are gone. They left a note for us.”

“Gone? Where?” Tina asks, but Newt doesn’t answer. Instead, he tosses the note toward her direction on the table, not taking the risk with his arm exposed. Tina takes the note and reads while one arm is still around the cat. Her eyebrows go up as she reads and she raises her head from the note. “When do you think they went?”

“I don’t know. But you better call them and find out. And either way, we need to hurry.”

“Yes,” Tina says then puts Mauler down much to cat’s protests. Tina finds her phone in the mess of the table and calls Queenie immediately while Newt takes his blanket to fold it.

He gets up and starts to tidy up their mess as Tina talks to her sister while making up excuses for them to don’t come back to the house early. Newt can’t help grin while watching Tina’s sudden desperation for white chocolate cheesecake. It was amusing.

“Queen’ _please_ , just go back and grab some chocolate for your favorite sister!”

“ _Where did this cake love came all of a sudden? You don’t even like white chocolate that much!_ ”

“I know, but I suddenly really want some? Especially made by you. So would you show your love for your beloved sister by going back to the store?”

Tina grimaces and removes the phone from her ear when Queenie sighs. Tina bites her lip as Jacob says something too, but eventually they accept.

“They are going back!” Tina calls out and goes to the kitchen where Newt was putting their empty cups to the sink. “I have a friend that lives there. I’ll call her and send her to hold them so we can gain time.”

“Good. What do we cook though?”

“Ah… I don’t know. Start looking through the cabinets while I call.”

Newt gets to work while Tina calls her one of the oldest friends, Linda. Who runs a hardware shop with her dad in town, which is very close where Queenie and Jacob were going back to at the moment.

“Hey, Linda, where are you?” Tina says while opening a cabinet.

“ _Hello to you too. And I’m at the Shop? Where else I’m supposed to be on a tuesday?_ ”

“Great! Listen, Linda I need a favor. Queenie and her boyfriend are currently coming to town for shopping. I need you to find them and hold them for awhile. Gain me some time.”

“ _Time, why? Tina…_ ” Tina immediately recognizes her friends teasing voice and beats her to it. “Do not think anything about it. A friend and I are preparing a surprise for them, and we need time.”

“ _A ‘friend’ like Achilles Tolliver?_ ”

“ _No_ , and what did I say talking about him?” Tina angrily whispers while stealing a glance at Newt, whose thankfully occupied with a package. Tina hears Linda’s teasing laugh. “Can we focus Linda?”

“ _Alright, alright. But what do you want me to do? Jump in front of their car?_ ”

“No. Just… I dunno go find them in the market and invite them for a coffee or something. And try to hold them as long as you can.”

“ _Like... fifteen minutes?_ ”

“More than that! We need time! Please, Linda. I’ll owe you one.”

“ _Ok, fine. I’ll do my best.”_

“Thank you! Call me when they leave. Love you, bye!” Tina turns to a waiting Newt. “Ok, what we can do in like, an hour?”

Newt shrugs and holds a package. “I found spaghetti.”

“Romantic.”

“Well, Queenie’s favorite is Lady and the Tramp. So she might actually find it romantic.”

Tina laughs. “Ok. I remember having some chicken too, so chicken spaghetti and salad. Anything else?”

Newt shrugs. “I found some packaged soups too, and I think our cooking talents and time can only cover this menu.”

“Agree. My original plan was buying food from outside and _then,_ ” Tina opens a drawer with a dramatic face, “present them to the lovely couple on a fancy table.”

“How lovely,” Newt says as Tina takes out a red tablecloth. He pouts at Tina, “Do we have roses too?”

“As a matter of fact, we do-fake ones, I mean. They must be on the rooftop with the candles.” She points at him, commanding. “You start cooking while I get the table ready.”

“Is this a ploy to get me do the cooking because you’re so bad at it like Queenie said?”

Tina ignores him as she stomps up the stairs. Newt laughs while finding a pot to get the work.

* * *

An hour later, Newt and Tina look at their work proudly.

Tina had closed the curtains to darken the room. Their original plan was a romantic dinner, but circumstances caused it to be a lunch instead. Still, it didn’t mean they couldn’t make it look like a dinner.

“This is the best we can do,” Tina says, lighting one of the long candles. “But the sky is dark anyway, and with the curtains, I can barely see you.”

“Do you think we should light more candles?”

Tina looks around; the candles were lighting up the table enough. The red tablecloth was glimmering at every little movement of the fire, and the plates were looking equally elegant. They really did a good job. “Nah, it’s good. They can light more themselves if they want. Anything else?”

Newt folds his arms around himself and shakes his head, “No I think. The food is ready, the table is ready, Mauler is in her cage… I think we can leave now.”

Tina eyes him, “Are you cold?”

“No. No, I’m okay,” he says, and Tina doesn’t believe him but lets it slide.

“Alright then, lets go. It’s been fifteen minutes since Linda called us. We wouldn’t want to run into them on the way.”

“You sure we can stay out of their sight?” Newt says as he follows her to the coathanger.

“If we hurry, I believe so.” Tina ties her boots before wearing her coat. She picks up Mauler’s cage and her trunk when Newt wears his coat.

Tina waits for Newt to get put and close the door after them. She turns, and they walk down the stairs carefully while listening Mauler’s obvious discomfort because of the cold.

* * *

“You named a golden eagle _Frank_?”

“He looked like a Frank.” Newt answers while not quite understanding her disbelief. “What would you name it?”

“I… don’t know. But it wouldn’t be Frank.” Tina says surely and explains when he narrows his eyes. “Because when you say Frank, I imagine a bunny or a hamster. Not a giant eagle with claws that can cut your skin like paper.”

Newt rolls his eyes, “For the record, I didn't name him Frank because he was an eagle. It was because he was the clingiest eagle I’ve ever encountered. Well… As clingy as an eagle can be, but he also very likes freedom. So, I gave him that name because of his personality, not because I thought it would be funny.”

“Sorry.” She sounds sincere.

“It’s okay,” Newt says, _it's not like you’re the first one who thought that way_.

“No, I mean it. I can be a gauche sometimes.”

Newt thinks for a moment. “Yes you can. But you apologize when you realize it, so you’re not that bad.”

Tina grimaces but accepts the criticism. She taps on the steering wheel while he watches the passing landscape for some minutes. Whiteness goes as far as they can see and he snow has slowed slightly since they left an hour ago.

“Do you think they came to the house?”

“I don’t know. They haven’t called or texted did they?”

“No.” Newt checks his phone, then Tina’s. No notifications except Twitter, but Mauler’s photo with sunglasses makes Newt smile. “Mauler looks amazing in those glasses.”

“Yes,” Tina smiles and calls for Mauler over her shoulder. “Even though that killer cat got rid of the glasses a second later after the photo.”

“Oh come on! I tried it on Dougal, and it was a disaster. You at least could take a picture of her.”

“Aw. He’d look great too though, a cloud wearing sunglasses.” Tina smiles at the image in her head. “Who looks after him while you’re gone?”

“Bunty, my assistant from the Zoo. Dougal and Niffler are on her responsibility while I’m gone.”

“Who’s Niffler? Another dog?”

“Oh, no. She’s a ferret.”

“Really? Does Dougal get along with her nicely?”

“She constantly uses Dougal as her bed and he hasn’t complained once.”

Tina laughs and Newt joins her, although they soon get cut by Tina’s stomach growling. Her cheeks redden in the silence and Newt casually breaks it by asking is there someone they can eat. She isn’t the only one who’s hungry after all.

“There is a Chinese restaurant in a few miles if it’s okay with you. An old place, running since I was little.”

“Sounds good to me.” Newt says before sneezing for the third time since they got in the car. He puts his hands in his pockets.

“Are you okay?” Tina asks, concern in her voice.

“Yes, yes. I’m alright. Just a sneeze.” He sniffs.

 _I’m not so sure about that_ , Tina thinks but doesn’t voice it. The silence continues except the radio until they reach the restaurant. The parking lot is almost empty and Tina faces no difficulty parking. They leave a window open for Mauler, but they don’t plan to stay long anyway.

As they sit on a window-side table, Tina’s phone buzzes. She ignores it at first, but she changes her mind quickly for a possibility. So she takes her phone out of her pocket, and a bright smile blossoms on her face when she reads the upcoming texts from her sister.

" **YOU ARE THE BESTEST OF SISTERS** "

" **I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU!** "

" **AND NEWT TOO! HOW DID YOU GET HIM INTO THIS?!** "

" **I DON’T CARE** "

" **THANK YOU BOTH! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!** "

Newt watches Tina across the table with a slight smile.“They liked it. I take it?”

“Oh, yes they did.” Tina holds her phone for him to read the texts Queenie had sent her. She’d posted a selfie with her ring too. Tina takes a close look to admire the jewelry. “Gotta admit Jacob’s pick is nice.”

“I helped.” Newt says and makes a face when Tina looks at him unbelieving. “He dragged me along and I helped him to lessen his options.”

“Well, Queenie seems to like it,” Tina smiles. “Thank you, Newt.”

“There is nothing to thank for. I wanted to make them happy just like you did.” They smile for a short second before looking away again. Tina watches the tiny snowflakes fall slowly as thinks that maybe, the man who inspired _Serpente Salamandra_ wasn’t so bad after all.


	9. Chapter 9

Newt can’t help but smile when he opens the picture Tina had send him.

He has no idea how she managed it, but he can’t complain. Dougal looks too cute in Tina’s sunglasses for him to complain.

**-He wore them better than me.** Tina had written under the picture.

**I think you both look great with them.**

A noise makes him jump. Probably came from somewhere from his right. He looks around, expecting to see the little bugger, Niffler, to run around in the house. He has been hiding for the last hour. Newt suspects he’s somewhere behind the TV unit or the couch facing it, where he usually collects the stuff he has stolen around. But, Newt is currently too sick to play hide and seek with his wicked ferret.

When he turns his head back to his phone, he sees little dots that shows Tina’s writing. As he waits for her response, the doorbell rings. Newt jerks up, causing his headache to start again. For a second he considers not getting up and waiting until the person go away, whoever it was. He ultimately decides against it after the third ring, and he gets up with a sigh while wrapping his blanket around his shoulders. He gave his keys to Tina so she can get back in without making him get up. Now, it's probably the mailman who pulls him out of his warm blanket and it annoys him deeply.

He wraps himself to his blanket tighter and stops in front of the door while swinging on his feet. Niffler bolts out from his last hiding place and runs to the door, maneuvering between Newt’s feet. Newt bends down and catches him before opening the door.

Both Niffler and Newt freeze when they see the person in front of them. Newt from shock, and Niffler with happiness at the sight of one of his favorite people in the world.

Leta Scamander stands in front of them in a dark pink coat and a green-silver scarf around her neck. Her lips curl into a smile as she says _hi_ before reaching the stunned ferret. Niffler goes to her with excitement, and Leta turns her head with a smug face. “I’m still his favorite I suppose.”

Newt stares down at his sister-in-law, dumbfounded. He has to snake himself for even remembering to greet her and invite her in. He tries to help her to carry the two suitcases on her both sides, but she brushes him off saying she handled them this far.

Leta takes Niffler from his hand and puts him on her scarf for a short while as she carries the cases inside. She starts to take her coat off while looking at Newt’s attire. “You haven’t got any better huh? I have good news then. Theseus went to shopping for ingredients, he wants to make your mother’s soup for his sick little brother.”

Newt shrugs and turns his back while walking to his couch. Of course his brother's immediate solution for a cold is their mother’s soup. “I’m better than yesterday. Yesterday, was terrible.” _so terrible that I called Tina for a cup of tea._

Tina wasn’t his first choice of course, but both Bunty and Hagrid were busy in the zoo. Jacob was out of the question and since his family was living overseas…

And she said he could call her if he gets worse. _You look sick already, and now I kinda feel bad for taking your picture first before helping you out from that pit._

After Newt called her yesterday, he thought maybe it was a bad idea. That they weren’t that close and it would be awkward, but it turned out that spending time with her was surprisingly easy and pleasant. Well, he thought so of the couple of hours they’ve spent after he woke up from his sleep.

Leta follows Newt while whispering to Niffler. She looks around the house. It was a bit messy as always, but in a Newt kind of way. She recognizes a notebook that still on the same spot since her last visit on the coffee table, but his movie collection still looks spotless despite having two animal in the house. She can’t say the same thing for the furniture though.

“Theseus and I were planning to come to New York anyway, but we decided to stay with you so we could look after you.” Leta walks to the single sofa that faces the kitchen where Newt has already laid on, and she sits on the single armchair beside it that wasn’t there before. She strokes Niffler while he makes himself comfortable around her neck. “How did you get sick?”

_I played on the snow too much,_ Newt thinks but wisely, he doesn’t say that. “I slept without anything to cover me,” Newt says. Not a lie, it probably is the real reason why he got sick.

Leta nods emphatically. She looks around the house once more, then the garden on their right. The windows allow her to see most of the backyard, but it seems like she cannot find what she’s looking for. “Where is Dougal?”

Newt fights the sudden urge to hide under his blanket to avoid the question. “Um… A- a friend walks him since I can’t while I’m in this state.”

For a moment, Leta narrows her eyebrows like she recognized something, but it disappears after a small faint smile. She leans back on her seat. “Who? Hagrid?”

“No. A… um… A colleague of mine...”

“Bunty?”

Newt shakes his head while thinking about what he can do to stop Leta from seeing Tina. He would never hear the end of it from her and Theseus if they found out he was friends with her now.

Leta opens her mouth, but her head snaps back at the sound of the street door opening. She jolts before Newt even could get his hand up, and he sighs before stumping back in defeat.

He can hear Dougal’s excitement while Leta introduces herself. Tina starts to say her pen name, but thinks better of it and corrects it to her short name instead. Newt knows Leta recognized her, how she wouldn’t considering she just met the writer of one of her favorite book series.

He expects them to come inside, that Leta wouldn’t just allow Tina to walk away, but with an excuse that he can’t hear Tina leaves. He makes out her wishes for him to get better before the door gets closed.

First Dougal comes and jumps to the couch to lay on the empty space behind his legs. Leta comes after him and takes her spot back on the armchair. Newt thinks she looks like a cartoon villain as she strokes the Niffler that still rests on her shoulder. A malicious grin on her face. “I thought you hate that arrogant, annoying, narcissist woman. And now she walks Dougal while you’re sick?” Leta leans forward, “ _Tell me everything._ ”

Newt closes his eyes to take a breath, but the doorbell rings once more. Leta gets up again and this time its Theseus who came. He fastly walks inside with bags on his hands and greets him while putting them on the kitchen counter. He turns to Leta with a bewildered face. “You _cannot_ guess who I just saw on the street.”

“I think I can. P.E. Goldstein?” Leta guesses innocently and Theseus brows. Leta nods toward Newt and Dougal. “You remember on our way here... we thought we saw Dougal and Newt’s secret girlfriend?”

“Secret what- She’s not my girlfriend!” Newt’s throat burns with pain when he says it too loudly. Theseus mouth opens, and he blinks at Newt in disbelief. Newt ignores him as he sniffs and reaches for a tissue. He was just getting better…

A big grin spreads across Theseus's face. “ _Whatever_. You said you weren’t going to apologize from her for real. How did this happen? When did you get this close that she walks Dougal for you?” Leta helps him emptying the bags.

Newt grunts. Theseus ignores him and opens a pot’s cover to see what’s inside. He chuckles before closing it again. “And apparently she brought him soup too. Explain, or I’m calling mom.”

Newt sighs. “Well… I lost Dougal one day, -for like fifteen minutes!” He adds quickly at their horrified faces. “We ran each other, and she helped me to find him… So I figured I could give her a chance.

Then it turns out her cat’s vet was Hagrid, and we reran each other at Hagrid’s clinic. But his pet tarantula had died that day, and I had to take care of her cat because Hagrid was a crying mess… While we were at it, I told her that… I liked her novel.”

“Wow. I take back everything I said about you and women.” Theseus chuckles and Leta rolls her eyes.

“I don’t imagine her being so unbearable after that. Still,” Leta says as puts her hands on the counter. “I wonder why you haven’t called Jacob or Hagrid at first. Why her?”

“I forgot to mention- Jacob just got engaged to her sister, and they are currently having a romantic vacation in a log house outside of the city. Tina and I was there too but we left them be two days ago. I started to get sick on our way back. She told me I could call her if I get worse, and since both Hagrid and Bunty are busy…”

“What a thoughtful friend indeed,” Theseus says in a dreamy voice.

“Theseus enough of the jokes and teases, please,” Newt rubs his face with one hand.

“I’m not joking! But you don’t allow people in easily, and I’m surprised… Especially you two certainly didn’t start as friends… Be honest Newt, do you like her?”

“No!" Newt realizes his answer was a bit too quick. "I mean- I like her but not in a romantic way. And even if I did -which I don’t. It’d be none of your business.”

“Ok fine. Sorry for thinking about you and not wanting you to be alone. You know what, Leta and I saw her with Dougal on our way here, and we joked about you having a secret girlfriend. Do you really enjoy being single? When was the last time you went to a date?”

“Still, none of your business,” Newt says before coughing.

“A long time I imagine,” Leta says, almost dreamy, and Newt refuses to look her in the eye when he feels her eyes on him.

* * *

 

“When all of a sudden you called me and said you wanted to meet, I thought something went crazy Tina. I had no idea that all you wanted was just to play bowling? Like… _only_ to play _bowling?_ ” Lally asks with a disbelieving look on her face.

“ _Yeaup._ Just wanted to blow off some steam,” Tina answers flatly with her eyes on the bowling pins and a ball in her hands. She starts first.

“ _Houpe_ you don't believe your own lies Porcupine.”

“Don’t call me that!” Tina’s predictable reaction to her nickname makes Lally laugh. Tina ignores rest of Lally’s words and throws her ball… for it to make only half of the way before slowly falling to the sideway miserably.

Tina huffs in frustration. Lally leans back on her seat and slowly nods as she watches the ball’s pathetic journey with an unimpressed expression. “This is the best Tina ‘strike’ Goldstein can do? I’m so gonna beat you! Did you get hit by a car today or something?”

_I kinda wish_ , Tina thinks. “No. It was just an accident.”

“We both know that’s not true. Seriously, if you can’t even focus on a ball something sure happened. What is it?” Lally speaks with her softest voice as she gets up to and puts a friendly hand on Tina’s shoulder.

Tina sighs, “I… don't know. I don’t even have any idea what to name it- and I probably have no right to feel this way. Which- is the thing that frustrates me most! But what I’m sure about is; I’m in a bad mood, and want to get out of it by doing something I like with someone I like.”

Tina bends her head and looks at her with her puppy eyes and a dimpled smile, but Lally knows better. She mirrors Tina’s posture before speaking. “So you called me... knowing full well I’m terrible at bowling. Just to beat me and make yourself feel better?”

“ _No!_ Because you’re one of my best friends for years and…” Tina gives up under her knowing look. “-and _yes_ , you suck at bowling. I was gonna offer coffee but- you’re an easy target.”

Lally rolls her eyes but smiles. Tina does too and picks up another ball to throw. She focuses better this time and ignores the noise of newcomers who just entered the salon. Lally’s head turns, and she examines the group. All of them are men, some wears police jackets and all of them are laughing and joking. Just as her interest dies, her eyes catch one. He looks familiar. Before she can pinpoint, the tall, light brown haired man recognizes her, she then remembers. _Achilles Tolliver._

Lally swears under her breath and turns to Tina, but Achilles comes to them before Lally could even move. As Tina takes her eyes off of the scoreboard to inform Lally that even her worst is not that bad, she freezes at her ex-boyfriend's sight.

Achilles gives a casual smile and looks up to the scoreboard and frowns. “Looks like you got rusty Tina. Lally, may actually have a chance!”

Tina stares and Lally grunts. “I know I’m bad at it! I only wish people would stop throwing it to my face every time!”

“Sorry, so sorry.” Achilles puts his hands up in good nature. “So how are you guys been? I have no idea about you Lally, and I only hear about Tina on Twitter anymore. You were everywhere when you discussed your tea preference with Newt Scamander.”

Tina shakes herself slightly before answering. “Oh, don’t remind me. The memes still haven’t ended!” Tina tries to joke.

“Yeah, I can only imagine,” Achilles nods. Tina can see that his smile is a bit forced.

Lally uncomfortably looks between one another, and she gladly leaves the two alone in their awkwardness when her turn comes.

Tina takes a breath as she tries to find a topic. “So, how’s work?” _That I lost._

“Fine, I guess… if you consider only one murder in a week a success.” He scratches his neck. Tina remembers he does that when he’s nervous or uncomfortable. He looks almost unchanged; hence his hair is now short and he has a beard now. “How’s yours?” he asks tentatively.

Tina tries to shrug the tension of off her shoulders. “It’s fine too. I have time to write more than I ever wanted.”

“Oh, yes. You were always complaining that real criminals were taking all of your energy for fictional criminals.” A more genuine looking smile forms on his lips. “I read your books… They were- really good. I loved your metaphors and background criticism of today’s politics.”

Tina can’t help but compare Achilles’ and Newt’s reviews of her books. Newt’s his words felt more genuine than Achilles’ almost copied words from critics. Still, she gives a small smile out of politeness. “Well, th-”

“OH come on!” Lally exclaims, and both of their heads turn to her. Lally turns to them with a puff, then straightens herself at their amused faces. She points her finger to Tina, “Erase that look right now. You’re as bad as me tonight. I can still beat you.”

“Not happening,” Tina says smugly, and Achilles frowns.

“How are you as bad as her? Are you in a bad mood Tina?” he asks. Tina thinks she isn’t the only one who remembered small things.

Lally folds her arms as Tina walks forward to wait for the machine to put down pins. “She ain’t telling me! I’ve been asking her since she called me today.”

“I’m not telling her, because there’s nothing to tell,” Tina says without looking at them. _Seriously_ , Tina thinks. _That’s why it bothers me. It shouldn’t bother me._

“Well, I don’t think having so little competition will help,” Achilles says, making his voice disinterested.

Tina stops in mid-throw and turns back. “What are you saying?”

“What I’m saying is, why don’t you pick someone on your size?” Achilles suggests smugly.

Tina doesn’t turn back to throw as she should do. Instead, she walks to him, wearing a challenging expression matching Achilles’. “And that someone is you?”

“Now, don’t you remember how many times I beat you?” Achilles says and straightens to look down on her while folding his arms.

“Not more than the times I beat you,” Tina says. “Are you challenging me?”

“Yes. If you’re not afraid your rustiness won’t hold you back,” he nods to the pins. “Finish your game with Lally while I have one with my friends. Then, you can show me if you still deserve your nickname.”

Tina nods once, and Achilles mirrors her before leaving for his friends. Tina turns and throws her ball in fierce focus. The mealization hits her at the exact moment the ball leaves her hand.

She turns to Lally while biting her lip, and she closes her eyes at the sound of her ball finding its targets. She doesn’t need to turn around to hear the congratulations for her strike.

Lally sips her drink before meeting Tina’s eyes. “Don’t look at me. You brought this to yourself.”

Tina knows it, and when she turns her head she sees Achilles nod quietly before turning away. Tina sighs and marvels at her ability to find bigger troubles when she runs away from one.

* * *

 

“Ok, I might’ve spoken a bit too early about you being rusty. I thought it’d be easy but- it’s never easy with you is it?” Achilles asks as they step into the cold New York air. The two of them are the last ones leaving. Lally had already left almost an hour ago, and Achilles’ group went ahead of them.

“I told you. I have that nickname for a reason,” Tina smirks, almost flirty. “But, I’ll admit, you’ve got better since our last match.”

Achilles nods. “Seriously though… it’s been what- three years? Good that I’ve made some progress by that time.”

He probably wanted it to be a joke, but an uncomfortable silence falls between them. Tina is the one who breaks it. “Well, we can count it as two actually. I mean, I didn’t cut contact with the team. I still go out for drinks with them… It was you who wasn’t around much.”

“Yes… Well, I wanted some changes I guess. Not all of us have a cabin in a forest to go hide when things got complicated.”

Tina slows down slightly, and she looks at him with a demanding look. Achilles shakes his head slightly. “What I mean is- you weren’t yourself Tina. I was worried about you.”

“I know you were…” Tina says in a small voice. “And- you were right when you said I push people away when I need them the most… I’m sorry for being so difficult at the time. Both you and Queenie had to go through my worst back then.”

“You were difficult, and I said things I shouldn’t have said but, I wouldn’t break up with you if you weren’t so insistent.”

Tina’s head snaps up, she frowns. “You wouldn’t?...”

Achilles nods and sighs. He acts like he wants to say something, but decides against it. “Yes I wouldn’t but, you made it out fine without me. You reborn from your ashes as the writer you never thought you’d be.”

Tina watches him and smiles weakly. Yes, she wanted to be a writer, but it was only a fantasy for her. The book she was writing was just like a game she’d play when she wanted to relax. She didn’t even think she could ever finish it back then.

They walk in silence until Tina stops beside a certain black car. Achilles stops too when he realizes she wasn’t coming. He turns to her with a smirk. “Oh. I see you’ve got it now.”

Tina gives a weak smile. “Yeah. Finding parking spots is harder than I imagined though.”

Achilles laughs and Tina smiles. He slightly nods his head to the side. “Mine is a bit far away so... I should get going. Good night Tina, it was nice to see you again.”

Tina nods too, awkwardly turning on her heels. “Yeah, good night to you too.”

Tina slowly walks around her car, watching him go. She unlocks and gets inside. Her phone rings as she puts her bag aside. She takes her phone out to see who.

**-Hey. Why didn't you come inside when you brought Dougal today?**

Tina bites her lip. She had forgot him completely because of the game.

**I don't know.**

**I didn't want to make you guys uncomfortable, and you weren’t alone anymore so…**

Tina thinks she must sound like a robot when she rereads her texts, but she knows robots doesn’t have lumps in their throats.

**-You didn't have to come and take care of me, and I couldn’t even thank you properly for it.**

**No problem. Mrs.Scamander did, and it was a pleasure to meet Niffler and Dougal:)**

Tina can remember how Niffler was resting on the woman’s scarf. He had run away the moment she stepped a foot in Newt’s house, and she saw the reason now.

Her attention goes back to the phone with Newt’s return. A smiling emoji is what he sent back, and Tina’s lets her hands fall to her lap with a sigh. She doesn't know what to write back, nor she wants to. Though, their conversation seems to have ended.

Just as she throws her phone aside, the phone rings again. She reluctantly reaches to open it, but she gets surprised when she sees who is it from.

**-Tina?**

The texts throws her off for a second, _so he still has my number too_ , Tina thinks. **Yes, Achilles?**

**-The night is still young. I know a place nearby if you want to go.**

Her fingers tap themselves before she could stop them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, hope you guys liked it.


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